Ultra-Fast Perpendicular Spin-Orbit Torque MRAM

• Published in: IEEE transactions on magnetics Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 1 - 4
• Main Authors: Cubukcu, Murat, Boulle, Olivier, Mikuszeit, Nikolai, Hamelin, Claire, Bracher, Thomas, Lamard, Nathalie, Cyrille, Marie-Claire, Buda-Prejbeanu, Liliana, Garello, Kevin, Miron, Ioan Mihai, Klein, O., de Loubens, G., Naletov, V. V., Langer, Juergen, Ocker, Berthold, Gambardella, Pietro, Gaudin, Gilles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.04.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Cache memory; Computer memory; Condensed Matter; Critical current density; Current measurement; Magnetic tunneling; Magnetism; Magnetization; MRAM; Other; Physics; Pulse measurements; Random access memory; spin transfer; spin transfer torque-magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM); spin-orbit torque; spin-orbit torque-MRAM (SOT-MRAM); spintronics; Switches; Torque; Tunneling magnetoresistance
• ISSN: 0018-9464; 1941-0069
• DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2017.2772185

We demonstrate ultra-fast (down to 400 ps) bipolar magnetization switching of a three-terminal perpendicular Ta/FeCoB/MgO/FeCoB magnetic tunnel junction. The critical current density rises significantly as the current pulse shortens below 10 ns, which translates into a minimum in the write energy in the nanosecond range. Our results show that spin-orbit torque-MRAM allows for fast and low-power write operations, which makes it promising for non-volatile cache memory applications.