Spin–orbit torque switching of a ferromagnet with picosecond electrical pulses

Jhuria, Kaushalya; Hohlfeld, Julius; Pattabi, Akshay; Martin, Elodie; Arriola Córdova, Aldo Ygnacio; Shi, Xinping; Lo Conte, Roberto; Petit-Watelot, Sebastien; Rojas-Sanchez, Juan Carlos; Malinowski, Gregory; Mangin, Stéphane; Lemaître, Aristide; Hehn, Michel; Bokor, Jeffrey; Wilson, Richard B.; Gorchon, Jon

doi:10.1038/s41928-020-00488-3

Title: Spin–orbit torque switching of a ferromagnet with picosecond electrical pulses

Journal Article · Mon Oct 26 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Nature Electronics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00488-3· OSTI ID:1842291

Jhuria, Kaushalya ^[1]; Hohlfeld, Julius ^[1]; Pattabi, Akshay ^[2]; Martin, Elodie ^[1];

^[3]; Shi, Xinping ^[4]; Lo Conte, Roberto ^[2];

^[1]; Rojas-Sanchez, Juan Carlos ^[1]; Malinowski, Gregory ^[1];

^[1];

^[5];

^[1];

^[6]; Wilson, Richard B. ^[4];

^[1]

Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IJL, Nancy (France)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IJL, Nancy (France); Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Rímac, Lima (Peru)
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
Univ. Paris-Sud, Palaiseau (France)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

The development of approaches that can efficiently control the magnetization of magnetic materials is central to the creation of fast and low-power spintronic devices. Spin transfer torque can be used to electrically manipulate magnetic order in devices, but is typically limited to nanosecond timescales. Alternatively, spin–orbit torque can be employed, and switching with current pulses down to ~200 ps has been demonstrated. However, the upper limit to magnetization switching speed remains unestablished. Here, we show that photoconductive switches can be used to apply 6-ps-wide electrical pulses and deterministically switch the out-of-plane magnetization of a common thin cobalt film via spin–orbit torque. We probe the ultrafast magnetization dynamics due to spin–orbit torques with sub-picosecond resolution using the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). We also estimate that the magnetization switching consumes less than 50 pJ in micrometre-sized devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); French RENATECH network; National Science Foundation (NSF); US Army Research Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; ANR-15IDEX-04-LUE; NSF-EEC-1160504; W911NF-18-1-0364

OSTI ID:: 1842291

Journal Information:: Nature Electronics, Vol. 3, Issue 11; ISSN 2520-1131

Publisher:: Springer NatureCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (51)

Transient ferromagnetic-like state mediating ultrafast reversal of antiferromagnetically coupled spins Radu, I.; Vahaplar, K.; Stamm, C. Nature, Vol. 472, Issue 7342 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09901	journal	March 2011
Spin-Torque Switching with the Giant Spin Hall Effect of Tantalum Liu, L.; Pai, C. -F.; Li, Y. Science, Vol. 336, Issue 6081 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1218197	journal	May 2012
Spin-transfer-induced precessional magnetization reversal Kent, A. D.; Özyilmaz, B.; del Barco, E. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 84, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1739271	journal	May 2004
MRAM gets closer to the core Liu, Yizhou; Yu, Guoqiang Nature Electronics, Vol. 2, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-019-0340-0	journal	December 2019
Quantitative analysis and optimization of magnetization precession initiated by ultrafast optical pulses Lattery, Dustin M.; Zhu, Jie; Zhang, Delin Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5046683	journal	October 2018
Ultra-Fast Perpendicular Spin–Orbit Torque MRAM Cubukcu, Murat; Boulle, Olivier; Mikuszeit, Nikolai IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 54, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1109/TMAG.2017.2772185	journal	April 2018
Current-Induced Switching of Perpendicularly Magnetized Magnetic Layers Using Spin Torque from the Spin Hall Effect Liu, Luqiao; Lee, O. J.; Gudmundsen, T. J. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.096602	journal	August 2012
Picosecond optoelectronic detection, sampling, and correlation measurements in amorphous semiconductors Auston, D. H.; Johnson, A. M.; Smith, P. R. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.91947	journal	August 1980
Spatially and time-resolved magnetization dynamics driven by spin–orbit torques Baumgartner, Manuel; Garello, Kevin; Mendil, Johannes Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 12, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.151	journal	August 2017
Spin dynamics with inertia in metallic ferromagnets Kikuchi, Toru; Tatara, Gen Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.184410	journal	November 2015
Spin-Torque Influence on the High-Frequency Magnetization Fluctuations in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Petit, S.; Baraduc, C.; Thirion, C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.077203	journal	February 2007
Spin-orbit torque-driven magnetization switching and thermal effects studied in Ta\CoFeB\MgO nanowires Lo Conte, R.; Hrabec, A.; Mihai, A. P. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896225	journal	September 2014
Fast current-induced domain-wall motion controlled by the Rashba effect Miron, Ioan Mihai; Moore, Thomas; Szambolics, Helga Nature Materials, Vol. 10, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3020	journal	May 2011
Observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-driven dynamics in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets Woo, Seonghoon; Litzius, Kai; Krüger, Benjamin Nature Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4593	journal	February 2016
Ultrafast optical manipulation of magnetic order Kirilyuk, Andrei; Kimel, Alexey V.; Rasing, Theo Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.82.2731	journal	September 2010
Ultrafast magnetization switching by spin-orbit torques Garello, Kevin; Avci, Can Onur; Miron, Ioan Mihai Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4902443	journal	November 2014
Perpendicular switching of a single ferromagnetic layer induced by in-plane current injection Miron, Ioan Mihai; Garello, Kevin; Gaudin, Gilles Nature, Vol. 476, Issue 7359 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10309	journal	August 2011
Unifying Ultrafast Magnetization Dynamics Koopmans, B.; Ruigrok, J. J. M.; Longa, F. Dalla Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.267207	journal	December 2005
Single-shot dynamics of spin–orbit torque and spin transfer torque switching in three-terminal magnetic tunnel junctions Grimaldi, Eva; Krizakova, Viola; Sala, Giacomo Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 15, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0607-7	journal	January 2020
Enhanced spin-orbit torques in Pt/Co/Ta heterostructures Woo, Seonghoon; Mann, Maxwell; Tan, Aik Jun Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4902529	journal	November 2014
Antiferromagnetic opto-spintronics Němec, P.; Fiebig, M.; Kampfrath, T. Nature Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0051-x	journal	March 2018
SOT-MRAM 300MM Integration for Low Power and Ultrafast Embedded Memories Garello, K.; Yasin, F.; Couet, S. 2018 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits https://doi.org/10.1109/VLSIC.2018.8502269	conference	June 2018
Intense ultrashort terahertz pulses: generation and applications Hoffmann, Matthias C.; Fülöp, József András Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 44, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/44/8/083001	journal	February 2011
Terahertz electrical writing speed in an antiferromagnetic memory Olejník, Kamil; Seifert, Tom; Kašpar, Zdeněk Science Advances, Vol. 4, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar3566	journal	March 2018
Review of terahertz photoconductive antenna technology Burford, Nathan M.; El-Shenawee, Magda O. Optical Engineering, Vol. 56, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.1.010901	journal	January 2017
Ultrafast magnetization reversal by picosecond electrical pulses Yang, Yang; Wilson, Richard B.; Gorchon, Jon Science Advances, Vol. 3, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1603117	journal	November 2017
Optimization of photomixers and antennas for continuous-wave terahertz emission Gregory, I. S.; Baker, C.; Tribe, W. R. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 41, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1109/JQE.2005.844471	journal	May 2005
Nanoscale spin reversal by non-local angular momentum transfer following ultrafast laser excitation in ferrimagnetic GdFeCo Graves, C. E.; Reid, A. H.; Wang, T. Nature Materials, Vol. 12, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3597	journal	March 2013
Comparison of spin-orbit torques and spin pumping across NiFe/Pt and NiFe/Cu/Pt interfaces Nan, Tianxiang; Emori, Satoru; Boone, Carl T. Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.214416	journal	June 2015
Spin-orbit torque magnetization switching of a three-terminal perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction Cubukcu, Murat; Boulle, Olivier; Drouard, Marc Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4863407	journal	January 2014
Antiferromagnetic spintronics Baltz, V.; Manchon, A.; Tsoi, M. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 90, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.90.015005	journal	February 2018
Spin-orbit torque based magnetization switching in Pt/Cu/[Co/Ni] ₅ multilayer structures Ostwal, Vaibhav; Penumatcha, Ashish; Hung, Yu-Ming Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 122, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4994711	journal	December 2017
Dynamics of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls in ultrathin magnetic films Thiaville, André; Rohart, Stanislas; Jué, Émilie EPL (Europhysics Letters), Vol. 100, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/100/57002	journal	December 2012
Current-induced spin-orbit torques in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic systems Manchon, A.; Železný, J.; Miron, I. M. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 91, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.91.035004	journal	September 2019
Thermal-magnetic noise measurement of spin-torque effects on ferromagnetic resonance in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions Guan, Y.; Sun, J. Z.; Jiang, X. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3212870	journal	August 2009
Electric current induced ultrafast demagnetization Wilson, Richard B.; Yang, Yang; Gorchon, Jon Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.045105	journal	July 2017
Time Resolved Measurements of the Switching Trajectory of $Pt / Co$ Elements Induced by Spin-Orbit Torques Decker, M. M.; Wörnle, M. S.; Meisinger, A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.257201	journal	June 2017
Spin Hall effects Sinova, Jairo; Valenzuela, Sergio O.; Wunderlich, J. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 87, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.87.1213	journal	October 2015
Ultrafast and energy-efficient spin–orbit torque switching in compensated ferrimagnets Cai, Kaiming; Zhu, Zhifeng; Lee, Jong Min Nature Electronics, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-019-0345-8	journal	January 2020
14ns write speed 128Mb density Embedded STT-MRAM with endurance>10 ¹⁰ and 10yrs retention@85°C using novel low damage MTJ integration process Sato, H.; Honjo, H.; Watanabe, T. 2018 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) https://doi.org/10.1109/IEDM.2018.8614606	conference	December 2018
Magnetization dynamics, gyromagnetic relation, and inertial effects Wegrowe, J. -E.; Ciornei, M. -C. American Journal of Physics, Vol. 80, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4709188	journal	July 2012
Ultrafast nonthermal photo-magnetic recording in a transparent medium Stupakiewicz, A.; Szerenos, K.; Afanasiev, D. Nature, Vol. 542, Issue 7639 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20807	journal	January 2017
Spin-current-mediated rapid magnon localisation and coalescence after ultrafast optical pumping of ferrimagnetic alloys Iacocca, E.; Liu, T. -M.; Reid, A. H. Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09577-0	journal	April 2019
Symmetry and magnitude of spin–orbit torques in ferromagnetic heterostructures Garello, Kevin; Miron, Ioan Mihai; Avci, Can Onur Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 8, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2013.145	journal	July 2013
Anomalously Damped Heat-Assisted Route for Precessional Magnetization Reversal in an Iron Garnet Davies, C. S.; Prabhakara, K. H.; Davydova, M. D. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.027202	journal	January 2019
Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation for ferrimagnetic materials Atxitia, U.; Nieves, P.; Chubykalo-Fesenko, O. Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.104414	journal	September 2012
Thermal Contribution to the Spin-Orbit Torque in Metallic-Ferrimagnetic Systems Pham, Thai Ha; Je, S. -G.; Vallobra, P. Physical Review Applied, Vol. 9, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.064032	journal	June 2018
Anatomy of spin-transfer torque Stiles, M. D.; Zangwill, A. Physical Review B, Vol. 66, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.66.014407	journal	June 2002
Thermal Fluctuations of a Single-Domain Particle Brown, William Fuller Physical Review, Vol. 130, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.130.1677	journal	June 1963
Inertial spin dynamics in ferromagnets Neeraj, Kumar; Awari, Nilesh; Kovalev, Sergey Nature Physics, Vol. 17, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-01040-y	journal	September 2020
A 45nm Logic Technology with High-k+Metal Gate Transistors, Strained Silicon, 9 Cu Interconnect Layers, 193nm Dry Patterning, and 100% Pb-free Packaging Mistry, K.; Allen, C.; Auth, C. 2007 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting - IEDM '07 https://doi.org/10.1109/IEDM.2007.4418914	conference	December 2007

Similar Records

Picosecond spin-orbit torque–induced coherent magnetization switching in a ferromagnet

Journal Article · Wed Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Science Advances · OSTI ID:1842291

Polley, Debanjan; Pattabi, Akshay; Rastogi, Ashwin; +7 more

Progress toward picosecond on-chip magnetic memory

Journal Article · Mon Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1842291

Polley, Debanjan; Pattabi, Akshay; Chatterjee, Jyotirmoy; +5 more

Ultrafast magnetization reversal by picosecond electrical pulses

Journal Article · Fri Nov 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Science Advances · OSTI ID:1842291

Yang, Yang; Wilson, Richard B.; Gorchon, Jon; +3 more

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING

Title: Spin–orbit torque switching of a ferromagnet with picosecond electrical pulses

Citation Formats

References (51)

Similar Records

Related Subjects