Fully electrical controllable spin-orbit torque based half-adder

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 122; no. 5
• Main Authors: Han, Xiang, Fan, Yibo, Wang, Dong, Wang, Wei, Bai, Lihui, Chen, Yanxue, Yan, Shishen, Tian, Yufeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 30.01.2023
• Subjects: Applied physics; Cobalt base alloys; Cobalt compounds; Controllability; Current pulses; Heterojunctions; Intermetallic compounds; Logic; Magnetic switching; Memory devices; Platinum compounds; Room temperature; Torque
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0130902

A simple, reliable, and electrically controllable way to develop complementary spin–orbit logic devices is highly desired. In this work, controllable field-free spin–orbit torque (SOT) switching is demonstrated in the Pt/IrMn/Co/Ru/CoPt/CoO/MgO heterojunction at room temperature, which makes it an attractive building block for complementary spin logic. By applying current pulses along two orthogonal directions, both the in-plane exchange bias at the IrMn/Co interface and the perpendicular magnetization switching of the CoPt layer can be well controlled. Using this controllable SOT switching, multiple spin logic operations and a spin logic half-adder are obtained. These results indicate that controllable SOT switching could provide a potentially applicable way toward efficient spin logic and in-memory computing devices.