Daniel Bedau

Ultrafast switching in magnetic tunnel junction based orthogonal spin transfer devices

Orthogonal spin-transfer magnetic random access memory (OST-MRAM) uses a spin-polarizing layer magnetized perpendicularly to a free layer to achieve large spin-transfer torques and ultrafast energy efficient switching. We have fabricated and studied OST-MRAM devices that incorporate a perpendicularly magnetized spin-polarizing layer and a magnetic tunnel junction, which consists of an in-plane magnetized free layer and synthetic antiferromagnetic reference layer. Reliable switching is observed at room temperature with 0.7 V amplitude pulses of 500 ps duration. The switching is bipolar, occurring for positive and negative polarity pulses, consistent with a precessional reversal mechanism, and requires an energy of less than 450 fJ.

Spin-transfer pulse switching: From the dynamic to the thermally activated regime

The effect of thermal fluctuations on spin-transfer switching has been studied for a broad range of time scales (subnanoseconds to seconds) in a model system, a uniaxial thin film nanomagnet. The nanomagnet is incorporated into a spin-valve nanopillar, which is subject to spin-polarized current pulses of variable amplitude and duration. Two physical regimes are clearly distinguished: a long pulse duration regime, in which reversal occurs by spin-transfer assisted thermal activation over an energy barrier, and a short-time large pulse amplitude regime, in which the switching probability is determined by the spin-angular momentum in the current pulse.

Observation of thermally activated domain wall transformations

The spin structure of head-to-head domain walls in Ni80Fe20 structures is studied using high-resolution photoemission electron microscopy. The quantitative phase diagram is extracted from these measurements and found to exhibit two phase boundaries between vortex and transverse domain walls. The results are compared with available theoretical predictions and micromagnetic simulations and differences to the experiment are explained, taking into account thermal excitations. Temperature-dependent measurements show a thermally activated transformation of transverse to vortex domain walls in 7 nm thick and 730 nm wide structures at a transition temperature between 260 °C and 310 °C, which corresponds to a nucleation barrier height for a vortex wall between 6.7×10−21J and 8.0×10−21J.

Ultrafast spin-transfer switching in spin valve nanopillars with perpendicular anisotropy

Spin-transfer switching with short current pulses has been studied in spin-valve nanopillars with perpendicularly magnetized free and reference layers. Magnetization switching with current pulses as short as 300 ps is demonstrated. The pulse amplitude needed to reverse the magnetization is shown to be inversely proportional to the pulse duration, consistent with a macrospin spin-transfer model. However, the pulse amplitude duration switching boundary depends on the applied field much more strongly than predicted by the zero temperature macrospin model. The results also demonstrate that there is an optimal pulse length that minimizes the energy required to reverse the magnetization.

Quantitative determination of domain wall coupling energetics

The magnetic dipolar coupling of head-to-head domain walls is studied in 350nm wide NiFe and Co nanostructures by high resolution magnetic imaging. We map the stray field of a domain wall directly with sub-10-nm resolution using off-axis electron holography and find that the field intensity decreases as 1∕r with distance. By using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism photoemission electron microscopy, we observe that the spin structures of interacting domain walls change from vortex to transverse walls, when the distance between the walls is reduced to below (77±5)nm for 27nm thick NiFe and (224±65)nm for 30nm thick Co elements. Using measured stray field values, the energy barrier height distribution for the nucleation of a vortex core is obtained.

Precessional reversal in orthogonal spin transfer magnetic random access memory devices

Single-shot time-resolved resistance measurements have been used to determine the magnetization reversal mechanisms of orthogonal spin transfer magnetic random access memory (OST-MRAM) devices at nanosecond time scales. There is a strong asymmetry between antiparallel (AP) to parallel (P) and P to AP transitions under the same pulse conditions. P to AP transitions are shown to occur by precession of the free layer magnetization, while the AP to P transition is typically direct, occurring in less than 200 ps. We associate the asymmetry with spin torques perpendicular to the plane of the free layer, an important characteristic of OST-MRAM bit cells that can be used to optimize device performance.

Stability of

The stability of 2π domain walls in ferromagnetic nanorings is investigated via calculation of the minimum energy path that separates a 2π domain wall from the vortex state of a ferromagnetic nanoring. Trapped domains are stable when they exist between certain types of transverse domain walls, i.e., walls in which the edge defects on the same side of the magnetic strip have equal sign and thus repel. Here the energy barriers between these configurations and vortex magnetization states are obtained using the string method. Due to the geometry of a ring, two types of 2π walls must be distinguished that differ by their overall topological index and exchange energy. The minimum energy path corresponds to the expulsion of a vortex. The energy barrier for annihilation of a 2π wall is compared to the activation energy for transitions between the two ring vortex states.

2\pi

We present a two-current-pulse temporal correlation experiment to study the intrinsic subnanosecond nonequilibrium magnetic dynamics of a nanomagnet during and following a pulse excitation. This method is applied to a model spin-transfer system, a spin valve nanopillar with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Two-pulses separated by a short delay (< 500 ps) are shown to lead to the same switching probability as a single pulse with a duration that depends on the delay. This demonstrates a remarkable symmetry between magnetic excitation and relaxation and provides a direct measurement of the magnetic relaxation time. The results are consistent with a simple finite temperature Fokker-Planck macrospin model of the dynamics, suggesting more coherent magnetization dynamics in this short time nonequilibrium limit than near equilibrium.

Domain Walls in Ferromagnetic Nanorings

We present temperature dependent switching measurements of the Co/Ni multilayered free element of 75-nm-diameter spin-valve nanopillars. Angular dependent hysteresis measurements as well as switching field measurements taken at low temperature are in agreement with a model of thermal activation over a perpendicular anisotropy barrier. However, the statistics of switching (i.e. the mean switching field and the variance of the switching field distribution) from 20 up to 400 K are in disagreement with a Neel-Brown model that assumes a temperature independent barrier height and anisotropy field. We introduce a modified Neel-Brown model that fits the experimental data in which we attribute a T-3/2 dependence to the barrier height and the anisotropy field due to the temperature dependent magnetization and anisotropy energy.

Time-resolved magnetic relaxation of a nanomagnet on subnanosecond time scales

We report the free layer switching field distributions of spin-valve nanopillars with perpendicular magnetization. While the distributions are consistent with a thermal activation model, they show a strong asymmetry between the parallel to antiparallel and the reverse transition, with energy barriers more than 50% higher for the parallel to antiparallel transitions. The inhomogeneous dipolar field from the polarizer is demonstrated to be at the origin of this symmetry breaking. Interestingly, the symmetry is restored for devices with a lithographically defined notch pair removed from the midpoint of the pillar cross-section along the ellipse long axis. These results have important implications for the thermal stability of perpendicular magnetized magnetic random access memory bit cells.