Naturally Oxidized FeCo as a Magnetic Coupling Layer for Electrically Isolated Read/Write Paths in mLogic

Author

Sokalski, Vincent ; Bromberg, David M. ; Morris, Dan ; Moneck, Matthew T. ; En Yang ; Pileggi, Larry ; Jian-Gang Zhu

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

49

Issue

7

fYear

2013

fDate

Jul-13

Firstpage

4351

Lastpage

4354

Abstract

Recently, a nonvolatile, low power circuit scheme based on current-induced domain wall motion and perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions known as mLogic has been proposed that requires electrically isolated, magnetically coupled read and write paths. Here, we suggest naturally oxidized FeCo for the magnetic coupling layer. Relevant properties of the FeCo-oxide were evaluated by a preliminary investigation of [FeCo/FeCo-Oxide]_N artificial superlattices. It is found that FeCo thin films form an insulating 11 Å passivating oxide layer with a magnetization of 500 emu/cc. Experimental measurements show that FeCo-oxide can couple two perpendicular FeCoB layers with a coupling strength greater than 0.35 ergs/cm².

Keywords

MRAM devices; insulating thin films; iron compounds; logic circuits; low-power electronics; tunnelling magnetoresistance; FeCo; artificial superlattices; current-induced domain; electrically isolated read-write paths; low power circuit scheme; mLogic; magnetic coupling layer; magnetically coupled read paths; magnetically coupled write paths; passivating oxide layer; perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions; thin films; Couplings; Magnetic superlattices; Magnetic tunneling; Oxidation; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Saturation magnetization; FeCo-Oxide; FeCoB; mLogic; p-MTJ;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2013.2242446

Filename

6558927