Voltage-controlled Magnetic Anisotropy Research Articles

Voltage-controlled bimeron diode-like effect in nanoscale information channel

The magnetic bimeron, as the in-plane counterpart of the magnetic skyrmion, has potential applications in next-generation spin memory devices due to its lower energy consumption. In this work, the dynamic behavior of a current-driven bimeron in a nanotrack with voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) is investigated. By adjusting the profile of the VCMA, the bimeron can display a diode-like unidirectional behavior in the nanotrack. The unidirectional behavior can be modulated by changing the driven current density and width of the VCMA region. The trajectory of the bimeron can also be controlled by the periodic VCMA region, which can enhance the stability of bimeron and realize a high-storage density bimeron-based information channel.

Field-free switching model of spin–orbit torque (SOT)-MTJ device with thermal effect based on voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA)

Electrically driven magnetization switch has attracted much attention in the new spintronic memory, especially for spin–orbit torque (SOT)-based magnetic random access memory (MRAM). However, the published models are facing limitations with the continuous shrinkage of the feature size down to nanoscale. Also, the thermal effect caused by switching operation is non-negligible. Therefore, an effective model is needed to represent the switching dynamic of the device concerning the influences of the nanoscale and the thermal effect. In the paper, a compact model of three-terminal SOT-driven switching is established. The influence of the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) and spin transfer torque (STT) effect induced by bias voltage on the field-free SOT-driven switching is considered by numerically solving the LLG equations. Furthermore, a 3D model of the SOT-MTJ device is established by finite element method to trace the thermoelectric behavior inside the device. The thermoelectric behavior is integrated into the compact model to show the influence of the temperature on the switching behavior, highlighting the importance of the thermal effect for the realistic modelling of SOT-driven switching. Finally, a novel voltage pulse scheme is proposed, which can effectively shorten the switching time and improve the reliability of the device. The established model could provide strategies and guidelines for next-generation memory design and application.

Reconfigurable and reusable skyrmion logic gates with circular track

Magnetic skyrmion, a nano-sized spin texture with topological property, have the potential to develop high-density, low-power, and multifunctional spintronic devices. To realize the reconfiguration of a single logic device and the implementation of the complete logic functions, a new reconfigurable and reusable skyrmion logic is proposed and verified by micromagnetic simulation. Logic functions including AND, OR, NOT, NAND and NOR are realized in ferromagnetic (FM) nanotrack by skyrmion-edge repulsions and the voltage control of magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect. The working state of the potential well can be controlled by the link of the input signals, thus changing the function type. In addition, through reusing skyrmion in circular track, the energy required for creation and deletion is reduced. This work can provide guidance for the design and optimization of reconfigurable and reusable logic devices with circular track based on skyrmion.

Dependence of Sensitivity, Derivative of Transfer Curve and Current on Bias Voltage Magnitude and Polarity in Tunneling Magnetoresistance Sensors.

The sensitivity of tunneling magnetoresistance sensors is an important performance parameter. It depends on the derivative of resistance versus magnetic field (transfer curve) and the current and is expressed as the product of the two factors. Previous research has demonstrated that the bias voltage has a significant impact on the sensitivity. However, no research has been conducted into the dependence of current and the derivative on bias voltage magnitude and polarity, and their contribution to the sensitivity. Thus, this paper investigates the dependence of sensitivity, derivative of resistance versus magnetic field curve and current on bias voltage magnitude and polarity in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB-based tunneling magnetoresistance sensors with weak, strong and no voltage-controlled perpendicular magnetic anisotropy modification. It demonstrates that the sensitivity dependence on bias voltage for sensors with voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy modification showed no saturation up to 1 V. Moreover, the sensitivity asymmetry with respect to bias polarity changed significantly with bias, reaching a ratio of 6.7. Importantly, the contribution of current and the derivative of resistance versus magnetic field curve to the sensitivity showed a crossover. The current dominated the bias dependence of sensitivity below the crossover voltage and the derivative above the voltage. Furthermore, the crossover voltage in sensors without voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy modification did not depend on polarity, whereas in sensors with voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy modification, it appeared at significantly higher voltage under positive than negative polarity.

Engineering Co/MgO interface with heavy metals for voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy effect

We have investigated the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect in Co/MgO junctions by inserting a sub-atomic layer of heavy metals at the interface. We evaluated an electrical control of the magnetic anisotropy by using a micro-magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometer. The VCMA coefficient of the Co/MgO junctions increases with the insertion of an Ir or Pt layer and decreases with the insertion of an Os layer. These results imply that the VCMA coefficient can be engineered by doping heavy metals at the interface. The interface engineering using a heavy metal layer provides us with a method to control the VCMA coefficient over a wide range.

Voltage-gated spin-orbit torque switching in IrMn-based perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions

In this work, IrMn-based perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) are investigated. By inserting a thin W layer at an antiferromagnet/ferromagnet (AFM/FM) interface, we enhance the annealing temperature to 355 °C and obtain a high tunnel magnetoresistance ratio of 127%. Subsequently, field-free spin–orbit torque (SOT) switching of perpendicular MTJ is realized thanks to the in-plane exchange bias generated at the AFM/FM interface. Moreover, by applying a gate voltage, a coercive field is effectively decreased due to the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect. Finally, through the interplay of the SOT and VCMA effects, the critical switching current density is dramatically reduced by 73% (to 2.4 MA/cm2) and the total writing power consumption is decreased by 84% when a gate voltage of 0.76 V is applied. These findings pave the way for the practical applications of the IrMn-based perpendicular MTJs in low-power magnetic random-access memory.

Giant unilateral electric-field control of magnetic anisotropy in MgO/Rh2CoSb heterojunctions.

A large voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect is highly desirable for applications of voltage-torque magnetic random access memory. In this work, the dependence of magnetic anisotropy (MA) on the electric field in a MgO-based heterojunction consisting of a new Heusler alloy, Rh2CoSb, is studied using first-principles calculations. We find that the Rh-terminated MgO/Rh2CoSb heterojunction has a perpendicular MA and a giant VCMA coefficient of 7024 fJ V-1 m-1. Furthermore, the VCMA coefficient shows a characteristic of dependence on the electric-field direction. The origins of these behaviors are elucidated by orbital-resolved MA and second-order perturbation theoretical analysis. As the spin-down states of the in-plane orbital, dxy, are close to the Fermi level, the shift of these states induced by the electric field gives rise to significant changes of magnetic anisotropy energy, which is mainly responsible for the giant VCMA effect.

Skyrmion-Magnetic Tunnel Junction Synapse With Long-Term and Short-Term Plasticity for Neuromorphic Computing

Magnetic skyrmion-based data storage and unconventional computing devices have gained increasing attention due to their topological protection, small size, and low driving current. However, skyrmion creation, deletion, and motion are still being studied. In this study, we propose a skyrmion-based neuromorphic magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device with both long- and short-term plasticity (LTP and STP) (mixed synaptic plasticity). We showed that plasticity could be controlled by magnetic field, spin-orbit torque (SOT), and the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) switching mechanism. LTP depends on the skyrmion density and is manipulated by the SOT and magnetic field while STP is controlled by the VCMA. The LTP property of the device was utilized for static image recognition. By incorporating the STP feature, the device gained additional temporal filtering ability and could adapt to a dynamic environment. The skyrmions were conserved and confined to a nanotrack to minimize the skyrmion nucleation energy. The synapse device was trained and tested for emulating a deep neural network. We observed that when the skyrmion density was increased, the inference accuracy improved: 90% accuracy was achieved by the system at the highest density. We further demonstrated the dynamic environment learning and inference capabilities of the proposed device.

Analysis of spin-orbit torque magnetic tunnel junction model without external magnetic field assistance based on antiferromagnetism

The effect of spin-orbit torque (SOT) provides a new method of implementing ultra-low power spintronic devices. The in-plane exchange bias (EB) field in antiferromagnetic material can effectively assist SOT magnetization switching. Meanwhile, the utilization of voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) can effectively reduce the switching barrier. Taking advantage of the EB and VCMA effect, it is possible to realize SOT magnetic tunnel junctions without external field assistance. In this work, a spin-orbit torque magnetic tunnel junction model composed of antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetism/oxides without external magnetic field is developed by solving the modified Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) modular equation, and its magnetization dynamics is analyzed and studied. The effective fields in the model include the demagnetization field, thermal noise field, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy field with VCMA effect, and exchange bias field. Taking IrMn/CoFeB/MgO material system for example, the factors affecting the precession of magnetization are investigated, such as the effect of the exchange bias field, the VCMA effect and the mechanism of SOT field-like torque. Considering the practical applications, the effect of the deviation of the fabrication process of magnetic tunnel junctions is also analyzed. The simulation results demonstrate that the combined effect of <inline-formula><tex-math id="M5">\begin{document}$ {{\boldsymbol{H}}_{{\text{EB}}}} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20230901_M5.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20230901_M5.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> with VCMA effect can greatly reduce the critical <i>I</i><sub>SOT</sub>, thus assisting and realizing the complete field-free magnetization reversal; the SOT field-like torque plays a dominant role in realizing the magnetization reversal, and by adjusting the ratio of the SOT field-like torque to the damping-like torque, field free switching can be realized in the device at the ps grade ; and the MTJ can realize effective switching when the deviation of oxide thickness <inline-formula><tex-math id="M6">\begin{document}$ {\gamma _{{\text{tf}}}} \leqslant 10{\text{%}} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20230901_M6.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20230901_M6.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> or the deviation of free layer thickness <inline-formula><tex-math id="M7">\begin{document}$ {\gamma _{{\text{tox}}}} \leqslant 13{\text{%}}$\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20230901_M7.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="19-20230901_M7.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula>. Spin-orbit torque devices based on the antiferromagnetic without external magnetic field will provide highly promising solutions for a new-generation ultra-low power, ultra-high speed, and ultra-high integration devices and circuits.

Voltage control of frequency, effective damping, and threshold current in nano-constriction-based spin Hall nano-oscillators

Using micromagnetic simulations, we study the interplay between strongly voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA), ΔK=±200 kJ/m3, and gate width, w= 10–400 nm, in voltage-gated W/CoFeB/MgO based nano-constriction spin Hall nano-oscillators. The VCMA modifies the local magnetic properties such that the magnetodynamics transitions between regimes of (i) confinement, (ii) tuning, and (iii) separation with qualitatively different behaviors. We find that the strongest tuning is achieved for gate widths of the same size as the constriction width, for which the effective damping can be increased an order of magnitude compared to its intrinsic value. As a consequence, voltage control remains efficient over a very large frequency range, and subsequent manufacturing advances could allow spin Hall nano-oscillators to be easily integrated into next-generation electronics for further fundamental studies and industrial applications.

Electric-Field-Induced Coherent Control of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers

Enabling scalable and energy-efficient control of spin defects in solid-state media is desirable for realizing transformative quantum information technologies. Exploiting voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy, we report coherent manipulation of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers by the spatially confined magnetic stray fields produced by a proximate resonant magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). Remarkably, the coherent coupling between NV centers and the MTJ can be systematically controlled by a DC bias voltage, allowing for appreciable electrical tunability in the presented hybrid system. In comparison with current state-of-the-art techniques, the demonstrated NV-based quantum operational platform exhibits significant advantages in scalability, device compatibility, and energy-efficiency, further expanding the role of NV centers in a broad range of quantum computing, sensing, and communications applications.

Random Bitstream Generation Using Voltage-Controlled Magnetic Anisotropy and Spin Orbit Torque Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Probabilistic computing using random number generators (RNGs) can leverage the inherent stochasticity of nanodevices for system-level benefits. Device candidates for this application need to produce highly random “coinflips” while also having tunable biasing of the coin. The magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) has been studied as an RNG due to its thermally-driven magnetization dynamics, often using spin transfer torque (STT) current amplitude to control the random switching of the MTJ free layer magnetization, here called the stochastic write method. There are additional knobs to control the MTJ-RNG, including voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) and spin orbit torque (SOT), and there is need to more systematically study and compare these methods. We build an analytical model of the MTJ to characterize using VCMA and SOT to generate random bit streams. The results show that both methods produce high quality, uniformly distributed bitstreams. Biasing the bitstreams using either STT current or an applied magnetic field shows a sigmoidal distribution vs. bias amplitude for both VCMA and SOT, compared to less sigmoidal for stochastic write. The energy consumption per sample is calculated to be 0.1 pJ (SOT), 1 pJ (stochastic write), and 20 pJ (VCMA), revealing the potential energy benefit of using SOT and showing using VCMA may require higher damping materials. The generated bitstreams are then applied to two tasks: generating an arbitrary probability distribution and using the MTJ-RNGs as stochastic neurons to perform simulated annealing, where both VCMA and SOT methods show the ability to effectively minimize the system energy with small delay and low energy. These results show the flexibility of the MTJ as a true RNG and elucidate design parameters for optimizing the device operation for applications.

High-Density Spin–Orbit Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory With Voltage-Controlled Magnetic Anisotropy/Spin-Transfer Torque Assist

This article explores an area saving scheme for spin–orbit torque (SOT) magnetic random access memory (MRAM) by sharing the SOT channel and write transistor among multiple magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). We use two write mechanisms to selectively write the MTJs, i.e., voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA)-assisted write in the presence of an external magnetic field and field-free spin-transfer torque (STT)-assisted write. Using micromagnetic simulations that are augmented by the rare-event enhancement, we study various trade-offs among write current, time, and energy, write error rate (WER), and the number of MTJs on an SOT channel. We quantify the issue of IR drop on the SOT channel as a function of the SOT layer thickness and number of MTJs. Our results show having more than four MTJs on an SOT channel poses major challenges in terms of IR drop and WER. In addition, we evaluate the impact of the proposed scheme on read performance.

Magneto-ionic enhancement and control of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Magneto-ionic control of magnetic anisotropy is an emerging voltage-controlled approach that aims to offer much lower power consumption than current-controlled manipulation of magnetization. Moreover, magneto-ionic systems are ideal candidates for non von Neumann computing architectures, such as neuromorphic and stochastic computing due to their non-volatile and analog nature. One of the key metrics to quantify the efficiency of voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) is the magneto-electric voltage coefficient (ΔHc/|ΔV|). Here, we show greater than one order of magnitude improvement in this efficiency compared to existing solid-state systems using a Co/Pd multilayer heterostructure. By performing a systematic study of the Co thickness, the Pd thickness, and the number of repeat units of engineered Co/Pd multilayers, we identify a narrow bandwidth of the Co thickness from 2–2.5 Å, Pd thickness from 1.4–1.7 nm, and repeat units from 7–9, to maximize the VCMA. Compared to rivaled liquid electrolyte systems, this platform has the advantage of faster speeds and easier integration for on-chip logic and memory devices.

Sub-volt switching of nanoscale voltage-controlled perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions

Magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) based on voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) is a promising candidate for high-performance computing applications, due to its lower power consumption, higher bit density, and the ability to reduce the access transistor size when compared to conventional current-controlled spin-transfer torque MRAM. The key to realizing these advantages is to have a low MTJ switching voltage. Here, we report a perpendicular MTJ structure with a high voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy coefficient ~130 fJ/Vm and high tunnel magnetoresistance exceeding 150%. Owing to the high voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy coefficient, we demonstrate sub-nanosecond precessional switching of nanoscale MTJs with diameters of 50 and 70 nm, using a voltage lower than 1 V. We also show scaling of this switching mechanism down to 30 nm MTJs, with voltages close to 2 V. The results pave the path for the future development and application of voltage-controlled MRAMs and spintronic devices in emerging computing systems.

Quantum control of spin qubits using nanomagnets

Single-qubit gates are essential components of a universal quantum computer. Without selective addressing of individual qubits, scalable implementation of quantum algorithms is extremely challenging. When the qubits are discrete points or regions on a lattice, selectively addressing magnetic spin qubits at the nanoscale remains a challenge due to the difficulty of localizing and confining a classical divergence-free field to a small volume of space. Herein we propose a technique for addressing spin qubits using voltage-control of nanoscale magnetism, exemplified by the use of voltage control of magnetic anisotropy. We show that by tuning the frequency of the nanomagnet’s electric field drive to the Larmor frequency of the spins confined to a nanoscale volume, and by modulating the phase of the drive, single-qubit quantum gates with fidelities approaching those for fault-tolerant quantum computing can be implemented. Such single-qubit gate operations require only tens of femto-Joules per gate operation and have lossless, purely magnetic field control. Their physical realization is also straightforward using foundry manufacturing techniques.

Voltage-Controlled Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Enabled Low-Power Feature Extractor

In the letter, a stable magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) at 300 K that is changed stochastically by spin Hall effect (SHE) and voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) is designed as a switching component of a neuron, which is used to implement restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) as on-chip feature extractor. With the effect of VCMA, the naturally probability of the device can be regulated to be acted as the activation function of RBM. An online training scheme with VCMA-assisted SHE-MTJ and modified crossbar architecture is presented, which achieves high accuracy as well as neuron and synaptic sparsity. To meet the low power and low cost requirements, the training procedure and crossbar architecture is adjusted to be an offline training scheme, which achieves 72.50% energy consumption reduction of extraction and 2.84% accuracy promotion to 95.48%.

SOT-MRAM Digital PIM Architecture With Extended Parallelism in Matrix Multiplication

Emerging device-based digital processing-in-memory (PIM) architectures have been actively studied due to their energy and area efficiency derived from analog to digital converter (ADC)-less PIM hardware. However, digital PIM architectures generally need large extra memories to copy parameters, and they also suffer from low computation per memory-cycle efficiencies. In this paper, we present a novel spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memory (SOT-MRAM) based digital PIM architecture to alleviate the extra memory size burden and computation cycle issues. First, we propose the spintronics-assisted logic-in-memory (SLIM) cells to support efficient digital logic operations inside memories, where the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) is exploited to enhance the computation per memory-cycle efficiencies. In addition, crossed input source PIM (CRISP) architecture is proposed to extend the merits of SLIM cells by eliminating the extra memories for parameter copying while significantly improving the degree of parallel processing. An intra-memory pipelining scheme is also considered to further increase the throughput of CRISP. The proposed CRISP architecture has been implemented using 28 nm CMOS process, and it presents 1.10 TOPS/W and 0.95 TOPS/mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , showing considerable improvements of energy efficiency and throughput per area, compared to the state-of-the-art digital PIM architecture. Finally, to evaluate the impact of computation errors induced from the SOT devices and circuits in CRISP architecture, classification accuracy simulations have been performed while applying computation errors.

A Voltage-Modulated Nanostrip Spin-Wave Filter and Spin Logic Device Thereof.

A nanostrip magnonic-crystal waveguide with spatially periodic width modulation can serve as a gigahertz-range spin-wave filter. Compared with the regular constant-width nanostrip, the periodic width modulation creates forbidden bands (band gaps) at the Brillouin zone boundaries due to the spin-wave reflection by the periodic potential owing to the long-range dipolar interactions. Previous works have shown that there is a critical challenge in tuning the band structures of the magnonic-crystal waveguide once it is fabricated. In this work, using micromagnetic simulations, we show that voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy can effectively tune the band structures of a ferromagnetic-dielectric heterostructural magnonic-crystal waveguide. A uniformly applied voltage of 0.1 V/nm can lead to a significant frequency shift of ~9 GHz. A spin-wave transistor prototype employing such a kind of spin-wave filter is proposed to realize various logical operations. Our results could be significant for future magnonic computing applications.

Design of VGSOT-MTJ-Based Logic Locking for High-Speed Digital Circuits

Emerging spintronics devices in recent research have received much interest in various fields. Their unique physical aspects are being explored to keep Moore’s law alive. Therefore, the hardware security aspects of system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs using spintronics devices becomes important. Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) are a potential candidate in spintronics-based devices for beyond-CMOS applications. This work uses voltage-gated spin-orbit torque-assisted magnetic tunnel junction (VGSOT-MTJ) based on the Verilog-A behavioral model to design a possible logic-locking system for hardware security. Compared with the SOT MTJ, which uses a heavy metal strip below the MTJ stack, VGSOT-MTJ has an antiferromagnetic (AFM) strip that utilizes the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect to significantly reduce the JSOT,critical. To design the logic-locking block, we performed a Monte Carlo analysis to account for the effect of process variation (PV) on critical MTJ parameters. Eye diagram tests and mask designing were performed, which included the effect of thermal noise and PV for high-speed digital circuit operations. Finally, transient performance was analyzed to demonstrate the VGSOT-MTJ’s ability to design logic-locking blocks from the circuit operation perspective.