Tetsuhiro Suzuki

Layer thickness dependence of the current-induced effective field vector in Ta|CoFeB|MgO

Current-induced effective magnetic fields can provide efficient ways of electrically manipulating the magnetization of ultrathin magnetic heterostructures. Two effects, known as the Rashba spin orbit field and the spin Hall spin torque, have been reported to be responsible for the generation of the effective field. However, a quantitative understanding of the effective field, including its direction with respect to the current flow, is lacking. Here we describe vector measurements of the current-induced effective field in Ta|CoFeB|MgO heterostructrures. The effective field exhibits a significant dependence on the Ta and CoFeB layer thicknesses. In particular, a 1 nm thickness variation of the Ta layer can change the magnitude of the effective field by nearly two orders of magnitude. Moreover, its sign changes when the Ta layer thickness is reduced, indicating that there are two competing effects contributing to it. Our results illustrate that the presence of atomically thin metals can profoundly change the landscape for controlling magnetic moments in magnetic heterostructures electrically.

Current-induced domain wall motion in perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB nanowire

Current-induced domain wall motion in perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB nanowires with a stack structure of Ta(1.0 nm)/CoFeB(1.2 nm)/MgO(2.0 nm)/Ta(1.0 nm) was investigated. Domain wall motion driven by adiabatic spin-transfer torque was observed at a current of about 74 μA, corresponding to a current density of 6.2×107 A/cm2. The obtained results were compared with those of a micromagnetic simulation and the spin polarization of the CoFeB was estimated to be 0.72.

Control of Multiple Magnetic Domain Walls by Current in a Co/Ni Nano-Wire

All-electrical control and local detection of multiple magnetic domain walls in perpendicularly magnetized Co/Ni nano-wires were demonstrated. A series of domain walls was reproducibly shifted in the same direction by the current, keeping the distance between the walls almost the same. Furthermore, the walls can be shifted back and forth depending on the direction of the pulsed currents.

Domain Wall Motion Induced by Electric Current in a Perpendicularly Magnetized Co/Ni Nano-Wire

The authors show experimental results on domain wall motion induced by electric current in a Co/Ni nano-wire with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The motion was detected electrically by using the anomalous Hall effect. Threshold current density for the domain wall motion was found to decrease with decreasing the wire width, where the minimum threshold current density of approximately 5×1011 A/m2 was observed for the wire width of 70 nm.

A 90nm 12ns 32Mb 2T1MTJ MRAM

Since MRAM cells have unlimited write endurance, they can be used as substitutes for DRAMs or SRAMs. MRAMs in electronic appliances enhance their convenience and energy efficiency because data in MRAMs are nonvolatile and retained even in the power-off state. Therefore, 2 to 16Mb standalone MRAMs have been developed [1–4]. However, in terms of their random-access times, they are not enough fast (25ns) [1] as substitutes for all kinds of stand-alone DRAMs or SRAMs. To attain a standalone MRAM with both a fast random-access time and a large capacity, we adopt a cell structure with 2 transistors and 1 magnetic tunneling junction (2T1MTJ), which we previously published for a 1Mb embedded MRAM macro [5]. We need to develop circuit schemes to achieve a larger memory capacity and a higher cell-occupation ratio with small access-time degradation. We describe the circuit schemes of a 32Mb MRAM, which enable 63% cell occupation ratio and 12ns access time.

Current-induced effective field in perpendicularly magnetized Ta/CoFeB/MgO wire

The current-induced effective field in perpendicularly magnetized Ta/CoFeB/MgO wire was investigated. A threshold field decrease of 6.4 kOe/mA was observed by measuring the threshold field of Hall resistance versus the magnetic field curve with various bias currents. The decrease was probably caused by the in-plane effective field, mainly due to the Rashba effect. The effective field of the Ta/CoFeB/MgO wire was smaller and opposite in direction compared to that of Pt/Co/AlOx previously reported.

MRAM Cell Technology for Over 500-MHz SoC

This paper describes newly developed magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell technology suitable for high-speed memory macros embedded in next-generation system LSIs: a two-transistor one-magnetic tunneling junction (2T1MTJ) cell structure, a write-line-inserted MTJ, and a 5T2MTJ cell structure. The 2T1MTJ cell structure makes it possible to significantly improve the write margin and accelerate the operating speed to 200 MHz. Its high compatibility with SRAM specifications and its wide write margin were confirmed by measuring 2T1MTJ MRAM test chips. Although the cell structure requires a small-writing-current MTJ, the current can be reduced to 1mA using the newly developed write-line-inserted MTJ. Further development to reduce the current down to 0.5 mA is required to obtain a cell area of 1.9 mum2, which is smaller than the SRAM cell area, in the 0.13-mum CMOS process. The 5T2MTJ cell structure also enables random-access operation over 500 MHz because the sensing signal is amplified in each cell. Random access time of less than 2 ns can be achieved with SPICE simulation when the magnetic resistance is 5 kOmega and the magnetoresistive (MR) ratio is more than 70%

Intrinsic Threshold Current Density of Domain Wall Motion in Nanostrips With Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy for Use in Low-Write-Current MRAMs

In this paper, we have calculated the intrinsic threshold current density of domain wall (DW) motion in nanostrips with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and have estimated writing properties of magnetic random access memories (MRAMs) with DW motion. Carrying out a micromagnetic simulation, we revealed that the intrinsic threshold current density decreases with decreases in the strip thickness, width, and magnetization, whereas it did not depend significantly on magnetocrystalline anisotropy and exchange stiffness. These results showed good agreement with one-dimensional (1-D) analysis. We also found that current-induced DW motion in PMA strips may have potential for use in low-write-current MRAMs. For a width of less than roughly 100 nm, comparable properties to those of existing memories can be obtained.

Current-Induced Magnetic Domain Wall Motion in a Co/Ni Nanowire with Structural Inversion Asymmetry

The authors have investigated the current-induced magnetic domain wall (DW) motion in perpendicularly magnetized Co/Ni nanowire with structural inversion asymmetry (SIA). In this system, DW motion to the direction of electric current flow, not electron flow, and high DW velocity up to 110 m/s were confirmed, which have never been observed in Co/Ni systems without SIA. In addition, we found that the DW velocity showed a strong dependence on the perpendicular magnetic field in the range of ±100 Oe. These results suggest that DW in the Co/Ni nanowire with SIA moves in the steady mode, not in the precessional mode.

Stack Structure Dependence of Co/Ni Multilayer for Current-Induced Domain Wall Motion

We developed a film stack structure of Co/Ni with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), which is suitable for current-induced domain wall (DW) motion. A Ta/Pt underlayer effectively provided a sufficiently large PMA to achieve the DW motion driven by a small current. The critical current density ( jc) had a minimum value at a Pt underlayer thickness (tUL) of 2.4 nm and was insensitive to cap layer thickness (tcap). The dependence of jc on tUL and tcap can be accounted for in terms of the effective spin polarization.