Full voltage manipulation of the resistance of a magnetic tunnel junction
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Material Science and Engineering ProgramPhysical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2019-12-13Online Publication Date
2019-12-13Print Publication Date
2019-12Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/660626
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
One of the motivations for multiferroics research is to find an energy-efficient solution to spintronic applications, such as the solely electrical control of magnetic tunnel junctions. Here, we integrate spintronics and multiferroics by depositing MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions on ferroelectric substrate. We fabricate two pairs of electrodes on the ferroelectric substrate to generate localized strain by applying voltage. This voltage-generated localized strain has the ability to modify the magnetic anisotropy of the free layer effectively. By sequentially applying voltages to these two pairs of electrodes, we successively and unidirectionally rotate the magnetization of the free layer in the magnetic tunnel junctions to complete reversible 180° magnetization switching. Thus, we accomplish a giant nonvolatile solely electrical switchable high/low resistance in magnetic tunnel junctions at room temperature without the aid of a magnetic field. Our results are important for exploring voltage control of magnetism and low-power spintronic devices.Citation
Chen, A., Zhao, Y., Wen, Y., Pan, L., Li, P., & Zhang, X.-X. (2019). Full voltage manipulation of the resistance of a magnetic tunnel junction. Science Advances, 5(12), eaay5141. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aay5141Sponsors
We acknowledge the Nanofabrication Core Lab at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for excellent assistance.This work was supported by KAUST Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under award no. CRF-2017- 3427-CRG6. P.L. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 11604384) and the State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics (grant no. KF201717).
Journal
Science AdvancesAdditional Links
http://advances.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aay5141https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/5/12/eaay5141.full.pdf
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1126/sciadv.aay5141