Current Induced Switching of the Hard Layer in Perpendicular Magnetic Nanopillars

Author

Tudosa, Ioan ; Katine, Jordan A. ; Mangin, Stephane ; Fullerton, Eric E.

Author_Institution

Center for Magn. Recording Res., Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Volume

46

Issue

6

fYear

2010

fDate

6/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2328

Lastpage

2330

Abstract

We report the spin-torque switching of the magnetization of the reference layer in a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy nanopillar with a spin-valve structure made of a combination of [Co/Pd] and [Co/Ni] multilayers. Around critical current, the switching is random, but becomes deterministic for larger currents. The threshold current is different for the two current directions, which shows that heating is not the main driving force but the spin torque interactions. A possible memory application is to store the magnetic bit in the magnetization of the hard magnetic reference layer and use the soft free layer to read and write it.

Keywords

cobalt; cobalt alloys; copper; giant magnetoresistance; magnetic multilayers; magnetic switching; nickel; nickel alloys; palladium; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; spin polarised transport; spin valves; Co-Pd-Co-Ni-Co-Cu-CoNi-Co-Pd; application; critical current; current induced switching; hard layer; hard magnetic reference layer; heating; magnetization; multilayers; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy nanopillar; soft free layer; spin-torque switching; spin-valve structure; threshold current; Critical current; Heating; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic multilayers; Magnetic switching; Magnetization; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Read-write memory; Threshold current; Torque; Critical currents; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; spin polarized transport; spin valves;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Location

6/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2010.2042932

Filename

5467705