Ultra-low switching energy and scaling in electric-field-controlled nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions with high resistance-area product

作者：Grezes C^*; Ebrahimi F; Alzate J G; Cai X; Katine J A; Langer J; Ocker B; Amiri P Khalili; Wang K L

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2016, 108(1): 012403.

DOI：10.1063/1.4939446

We report electric-field-induced switching with write energies down to 6 fJ/ bit for switching times of 0.5 ns, in nanoscale perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with high resistance-area product and diameters down to 50 nm. The ultra-low switching energy is made possible by a thick MgO barrier that ensures negligible spin-transfer torque contributions, along with a reduction of the Ohmic dissipation. We find that the switching voltage and time are insensitive to the junction diameter for high-resistance MTJs, a result accounted for by a macrospin model of purely voltage-induced switching. The measured performance enables integration with same-size CMOS transistors in compact memory and logic integrated circuits.

• 出版日期2016-1-4