We numerically investigate the effect of magnetic and electrical damages at the edge of a perpendicular magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell on the spin-transfer-torque (STT) efficiency that is defined by the ratio of thermal stability factor to switching current. We find that the switching mode of an edge-damaged cell is different from that of an undamaged cell, which results in a sizable reduction in the switching current. Together with a marginal reduction of the thermal stability factor of an edge-damaged cell, this feature makes the STT efficiency large. Our results suggest that a precise edge control is viable for the optimization of STT-MRAM.
References
1.
G. I.
Meijer
, Science
319
, 1625
(2008
).2.
Z.
Diao
et al, Appl. Phys. Lett.
90
, 132508
(2007
).3.
J. A.
Katine
and E. E.
Fullerton
, J. Magn. Magn. Mater.
320
, 1217
(2008
).4.
S.-C.
Oh
et al, Nat. Phys.
5
, 898
(2009
).5.
S.
Ikeda
et al, Nature Mater.
9
, 721
(2010
).6.
J. Z.
Sun
et al, Phys. Rev. B
88
, 104426
(2013
).7.
L.
Thomas
et al, J. Appl. Phys.
115
, 172615
(2014
).8.
A. D.
Kent
and D. C.
Worledge
, Nat. Nanotechnol.
10
, 187
(2015
).9.
10.
R.
Waser
and M.
Aono
, Nat. Mater.
6
, 833
(2007
).11.
S.-J.
Choi
et al, Adv. Mater.
23
, 3272
(2011
).12.
M.
Gajek
et al, Appl. Phys. Lett.
100
, 132408
(2012
).13.
J. C.
Read
, P. M.
Braganca
, N.
Robertson
, and J. R.
Childress
, APL Mater.
2
, 046109
(2014
).14.
R.
Dittrich
et al, J. Magn. Magn. Mater.
250
, L12
(2002
).15.
G. D.
Chaves-O'Flynn
, E.
Vanden-Eijnden
, D. L.
Stein
, and A. D.
Kent
, J. Appl. Phys.
113
, 023912
(2013
).16.
K.
Song
, S. C.
Lee
, and K.-J.
Lee
, IEEE. Trans. Magn.
50
, 3400704
(2014
).17.
D.
Ravelosona
et al, Phys. Rev. Lett.
96
, 186604
(2006
).18.
S. M.
Seo
and K.-J.
Lee
, Appl. Phys. Lett.
101
, 062408
(2012
).19.
Z.
Zhang
, P. C.
Hammel
, and P. E.
Wigen
, Appl. Phys. Lett.
68
, 2005
(1996
).20.
O.
Klein
, G.
de Loubens
, V. V.
Naletov
, F.
Boust
, T.
Guillet
, H.
Hurdequint
, A.
Leksikov
, A. N.
Slavin
, V. S.
Tiberkevich
, and N.
Vukadinovic
, Phys. Rev. B
78
, 144410
(2008
).21.
H.-J.
Chia
, F.
Guo
, L. M.
Belova
, and R. D.
McMichael
, Phys. Rev. Lett.
108
, 087206
(2012
).© 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
2015
AIP Publishing LLC
You do not currently have access to this content.
