Experiments and SPICE simulations of double MgO-based perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/abdea2

Abstract We investigate properties of perpendicular anisotropy magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs) with a stack structure MgO/CoFeB/Ta/CoFeB/MgO as the free layer (or recording layer), and obtain the necessary device parameters from the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) vs. field loops and current-driven magnetization switching experiments. Based on the experimental results and device parameters, we further estimate current-driven switching performance of pMTJ including switching time and power, and their dependence on perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and damping constant of the free layer by SPICE-based circuit simulations. Our results show that the pMTJ cells exhibit a less than 1 ns switching time and write energies < 1.4 pJ; meanwhile the lower perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and damping constant can further reduce the switching time at the studied range of damping constant α < 0.1. Additionally, our results demonstrate that the pMTJs with the thermal stability factor

≃ 73

can be easily transformed into spin-torque nano-oscillators from magnetic memory as microwave sources or detectors for telecommunication devices.

Keywords: magnetic tunnel junctions magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) model switching time spin torque nano-oscillator

Received: 29 December 2020
Revised: 19 January 2021
Accepted manuscript online: 22 January 2021

PACS:	75.47.-m	(Magnetotransport phenomena; materials for magnetotransport)
	75.70.-i	(Magnetic properties of thin films, surfaces, and interfaces)
	75.75.-c	(Magnetic properties of nanostructures)
	85.75.-d	(Magnetoelectronics; spintronics: devices exploiting spin polarized transport or integrated magnetic fields)

Fund: Project supported by State Grid Corporation of China under the 2018 Science and Technology Project of State Grid Corporation: Research on electromagnetic measurement technology based on EIT and TMR (Grant No. JL71-18-007).

Corresponding Authors: ^†Corresponding author. E-mail: lht_phy@smail.nju.edu.cn ^‡Corresponding author. E-mail: rhliu@nju.edu.cn

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Qiuyang Li(李求洋), Penghe Zhang(张蓬鹤), Haotian Li(李浩天), Lina Chen(陈丽娜), Kaiyuan Zhou(周恺元), Chunjie Yan(晏春杰), Liyuan Li(李丽媛), Yongbing Xu(徐永兵), Weixin Zhang(张卫欣), Bo Liu(刘波), Hao Meng(孟浩), Ronghua Liu(刘荣华), and Youwei Du(都有为) Experiments and SPICE simulations of double MgO-based perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction 2021 Chin. Phys. B 30 047504

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