Electrical-Controllable Antiferromagnet-Based Tunnel Junction

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 24; no. 14; pp. 4165 - 4171
• Main Authors: Han, Lei, Luo, Xuming, Xu, Yingqian, Bai, Hua, Zhu, Wenxuan, Zhu, Yuxiang, Yu, Guoqiang, Song, Cheng, Pan, Feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 10.04.2024
• Subjects: exchange spring; antiferromagnet; tunnel junction; exchange bias
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00084

An electrical-controllable antiferromagnet tunnel junction is a key goal in spintronics, holding immense promise for ultradense and ultrastable antiferromagnetic memory with high processing speed for modern information technology. Here, we have advanced toward this goal by achieving an electrical-controllable antiferromagnet-based tunnel junction of Pt/Co/Pt/Co/IrMn/MgO/Pt. The exchange coupling between antiferromagnetic IrMn and Co/Pt perpendicular magnetic multilayers results in the formation of an interfacial exchange bias and exchange spring in IrMn. Encoding information states “0” and “1” is realized through the exchange spring in IrMn, which can be electrically written by spin–orbit torque switching with high cyclability and electrically read by antiferromagnetic tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance. Combining spin–orbit torque switching of both exchange spring and exchange bias, a 16 Boolean logic operation is successfully demonstrated. With both memory and logic functionalities integrated into our electrically controllable antiferromagnetic-based tunnel junction, we chart the course toward high-performance antiferromagnetic logic-in-memory.