Voltage-induced switching of nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions

Abstract

We demonstrate voltage-induced (non-STT) switching of nanoscale, high resistance voltage-controlled magnetic tunnel junctions (VMTJs) with pulses down to 10 ns. We show ~10x reduction in switching energies (compared to STT) with leakage currents <; 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">5</sup> A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Switching dynamics, from quasi-static to the nanosecond regime, are studied in detail. Finally, a strategy for eliminating the need for external magnetic-fields, where switching is performed by set/reset voltages of different amplitudes but same polarity, is proposed and verified experimentally.