Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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MA: Magnetismus

MA 18: Spin-Dynamics, Magnetization Reversal I

MA 18.9: Talk

Tuesday, March 28, 2006, 12:15–12:30, HSZ 403

Current assisted switching of magnetic tunneling cells with MgO barriers — •Guenter Reiss and Karsten Rott — Bielefeld University, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 100 131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany

The CMOS and scaling compatibility of the magnetic switching of the soft electrode in magnetic tunneling junctions is one of the major challenges in the development of both Magnetic Random Access Memory as well as Field Programmable Logic Gate Arrays. Because the traditional method of switching by field pulses generated by current lines requires large currents and is not scalable, alternative schemes such as heat assisted switching have been porposed and demonstrated. Here, we show, that the spin torque of the spin polarized current driven through a magnetic tunneling junction with low resistive MgO barriers with a of TMR around 130% can both reduce considerably the apparent coercive field of the soft layer and is even capable of switching the magnetization of the soft electrode. The currents needed for switching are in the range of some mA per square micron and thus open a way for CMOS compatibility of ultrasmall tunneling junctions.