Search

MRAM technology offers the opportunity to provide all the advantages of the most popular types of memory, such as DRAM, SRAM and FLASH with none of its disadvantages. Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) based on CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB structures are very promising for future spintronics, especially in MRAM memory operation due to its high tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and reasonable range of resistance area product (RA). The deposition process of MgO barrier in such structures is one of the most difficult challenges to achieve good parameters of MTJs and it strongly affects on the barrier roughness, especially on the low RA region because of insufficient crystallization of thin MgO on an amorphous CoFeB. Ordinary MgO barrier creation takes a long time due to obligatory steps of Mg oxidation in different module that makes process complicated and provides a risk of CoFeB oxidation through Mg. It is shown that the new approach of barrier formation using in-situ MgO RF sputtering with Mg insertions and higher Ar partial pressure has very promising ratio of TMR vs RA which can be used in MTJs required for low "read" and "write" currents having a big delta between Rmin and Rmax in the most advanced MRAM applications.

The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of Pt/CoFe(B)/MgO bottom electrodes and the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of CoFeB-based magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) have been analyzed as a function of Mg thickness for naturally oxidized barriers. Low PMA and TMR values are found for over-oxidized (small MgO thickness) and under-oxidized (large MgO thickness) barriers. When CoFe is used as bottom electrode, a strong correlation is observed between TMR and PMA variation as a function of MgO thickness with maxima in both quantities occurring for an MgO thickness around 1.2 nm. On the contrary, for CoFeB bottom electrodes, the sensitivity of PMA to MgO thickness is completely lost, as a probable consequence of boron diffusion towards the MgO interface.

Understanding quantitatively the heating dynamics in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) submitted to current pulses is very important in the context of spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory development. Here we provide a method to probe the heating of MTJ using the RKKY coupling of a synthetic ferrimagnetic storage layer as a thermal sensor. The temperature increase versus applied bias voltage is measured thanks to the decrease of the spin-flop field with temperature. This method allows distinguishing spin transfer torque (STT) effects from the influence of temperature on the switching field. The heating dynamics is then studied in real-time by probing the conductance variation due to spin-flop rotation during heating. This approach provides a new method for measuring fast heating in spintronic devices, particularly magnetic random access memory (MRAM) using thermally assisted or spin transfer torque writing., Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures

In field written thermally assisted (TAS) MRAM, the storage layer is pinned with an antiferromag-netic layer. The writing of TAS-MRAM consists of heating the storage layer above the blocking temperature of the antiferromagnet using an injected current pulse through the tunnel barrier. This pulse can be used to assist the writing either combined to an external magnetic field or to a spin transfer torque (STT) [1] effect coming from the spin polarized current flow. After setting the storage layer direction during the write step, the current pulse is removed, pinning the storage layer in the set direction. The actual temperature decay occurs in a timescale of few tens of nanoseconds [2]. STT is efficient while the current is flowing through the junction but disappears during cooling, once the heating pulse is removed. This assumption is valid if the temperature gradients across the barrier, giving rise to spin accumulation of thermal origin are negligible. In these conditions, when the temperature is above or close to the blocking temperature of the antiferromagnetic layer pinning the storage layer, the written state might be thermally unstable. In this paper, we have investigated the possibility of controlling the temperature decay, so that the spin polarized current and temperature decay at the same rate. We show that there is an improvement in writing reproducibility using a linear transition at the end of the current pulse during the cooling phase. This is especially evident in cases where STT influence on the field writing is more significant. The write error rate dependence with the voltage transition duration was measured, and we find an optimum value for a 70ns transition, corresponding to a linear pulse amplitude decay of 18mV/ns.

International audience; Spintronic applications rely on ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic exchange biased bilayers. In this study, we show whether and how disordered magnetic phases, which exhibit low freezing temperatures and are located in the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic thin film, affect the device-to-device variability of exchange bias in magnetic applications once the film is nanofabricated.

International audience; This paper investigates the effect of a controlled cooling rate on magnetic field reversal assisted by spin transfer torque (STT) in thermally assisted magnetic random access memory. By using a gradual linear decrease of the voltage at the end of the write pulse, the STT decays more slowly or at least at the same rate as the temperature. This condition is necessary to make sure that the storage layer magnetization remains in the desired written direction during cooling of the cell. The influence of the write current pulse decay rate was investigated on two exchange biased synthetic ferrimagnet (SyF) electrodes. For a NiFe based electrode, a significant improvement in writing reproducibility was observed using a gradual linear voltage transition. The write error rate decreases by a factor of 10 when increasing the write pulse fall-time from similar to 3 ns to 70 ns. For comparison, a second CoFe/NiFe based electrode was also reversed by magnetic field assisted by STT. In this case, no difference between sharp and linear write pulse fall shape was observed. We attribute this observation to the higher thermal stability of the CoFe/NiFe electrode during cooling. In real-time measurements of the magnetization reversal, it was found that Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) coupling in the SyF electrode vanishes for the highest pulse voltages that were used due to the high temperature reached during write. As a result, during the cooling phase, the final state is reached through a spin-flop transition of the SyF storage layer. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

International audience

International audience; The feasibility of 3-bits per cell storage in self-referenced thermally assisted magnetic random access memories is demonstrated both by macrospin simulations and experiments. The memory dot consists of a storage layer where CoFe/CoFeB magnetization direction is pinned by an IrMn layer using the ferromagnet/antiferromagnet interfacial exchange coupling, separated by an MgO tunnel barrier from a CoFeB sense layer whose magnetization direction is free to rotate. Writing is performed by heating the antiferromagnet above its blocking temperature by sending a current pulse through the magnetic tunnel junction, with the application of an in-plane field during the subsequent cooling phase, thus setting the new storage layer pinning direction. This pinning direction actually carries the information stored in the storage layer. Reading is performed by applying a rotating field, inducing a coherent rotation of the sense layer, and subsequently locating the field angle associated with the minimum measured resistance. This angle corresponds to the parallel magnetic configuration of the magnetic tunnel junction and therefore allows determining the pinning direction established during the write operation. The number of distinguishable pinning angles defines the total number of bits that can be stored in a single dot. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

International audience; Spintronics devices and in particular thermally assisted magnetic random access memories require a wide range of ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (F/AF) exchange bias (EB) properties and subsequently of AF materials to fulfil diverse functionality requirements for the reference and storage. For the reference layer, large EB energies and high blocking temperature (T B) are required. In contrast, for the storage layer, mostly moderate T B are needed. One of the present issues is to find a storage layer with properties intermediate between those of IrMn and FeMn and in particular: (i) with a T B larger than FeMn for better stability at rest-T but lower than IrMn to reduce power consumption at write-T and (ii) with improved magnetic interfacial quality, i.e., with reduced interfacial glassy character for lower properties dispersions. To address this issue, the EB properties of F/AF based stacks were studied for various mixed [IrMn/FeMn] AFs. In addition to EB loop shifts, the F/AF magnetic interfacial qualities and the AF grains thermal stability are probed via measurements of the low-and high-temperature contributions to the T B distributions, respectively. A tuning of the above three parameters is observed when evolving from IrMn to FeMn via [IrMn/FeMn] repetitions.

Thermally assisted MRAM cells with FeMn exchange biased storage layers were successfully written using 50 ns current pulses with write power densities below 10 mW/?m2 and current densities below 1.3 ×10 6 A/cm2. These low power density values were achieved without using thermal barriers to confine the heat in the cell. Introducing thermal barriers would even further lower the write power density by increasing the heating efficiency. The storage layer coercivity increased upon anneal at 340 C. This could be related to manganese diffusion or to a texture incompatibility between the CoFe and the FeMn antiferromagnetic layer, a problem which can be fixed by insertion of appropriate diffusion barrier or texture control layer. Successful writing was observed for repeated write attempts with heating pulse power densities in the 7-12.5 mW/?m2 range.

We have measured the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) in \textit{n}-Ge at room temperature. The spin current in germanium was generated by spin pumping from a CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junction in order to prevent the impedance mismatch issue. A clear electromotive force was measured in Ge at the ferromagnetic resonance of CoFeB. The same study was then carried out on several test samples, in particular we have investigated the influence of the MgO tunnel barrier and sample annealing on the ISHE signal. First, the reference CoFeB/MgO bilayer grown on SiO$_{2}$ exhibits a clear electromotive force due to anisotropic magnetoresistance and anomalous Hall effect which is dominated by an asymmetric contribution with respect to the resonance field. We also found that the MgO tunnel barrier is essential to observe ISHE in Ge and that sample annealing systematically lead to an increase of the signal. We propose a theoretical model based on the presence of localized states at the interface between the MgO tunnel barrier and Ge to account for these observations. Finally, all of our results are fully consistent with the observation of ISHE in heavily doped $n$-Ge and we could estimate the spin Hall angle at room temperature to be $\approx$0.001., Comment: 34 pages, 14 figures

Electrical spin injection into semiconductors paves the way for exploring new phenomena in the area of spin physics and new generations of spintronic devices. However the exact role of interface states in spin injection mechanism from a magnetic tunnel junction into a semiconductor is still under debate. In this letter, we demonstrate a clear transition from spin accumulation into interface states to spin injection in the conduction band of $n$-Ge. We observe spin signal amplification at low temperature due to spin accumulation into interface states followed by a clear transition towards spin injection in the conduction band from 200 K up to room temperature. In this regime, the spin signal is reduced down to a value compatible with spin diffusion model. More interestingly, we demonstrate in this regime a significant modulation of the spin signal by spin pumping generated by ferromagnetic resonance and also by applying a back-gate voltage which are clear manifestations of spin current and accumulation in the germanium conduction band., 5 pages, 4 figures

International audience; In this work, exchange bias was used as a probe to characterise the temperature profile induced by the inelastic relaxation of electrons tunnelling across a MgO barrier. Thermally assisted magnetic random access memory (TA-MRAM) cells comprising a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) with a reference pinned layer and a FeMn exchange biased storage layer were used. The pinning direction of the ferromagnetic storage layer is reversed when heated above the blocking temperature of the antiferromagnetic layer (FeMn). The power density required to reach this blocking temperature in the FeMn layer depends on the current polarity, indicating that the heat source term associated with the current flowing through the barrier depends itself on the current direction in contrast to simple Joule heating. This effect is due to the mechanism of energy dissipation in tunnelling. The tunnelling itself is ballistic i.e., without dissipation. However, after tunnelling, the hot electrons very quickly relax to the Fermi energy thereby loosing their excess energy in the receiving electrode. Therefore, the heat is essentially generated on one side of the barrier so that the whole profile of temperature throughout the pillar depends on the current direction. Full 3D thermal simulations also confirmed the temperature profile asymmetry. The proper choice of heating current direction (i.e., voltage polarity applied to the MTJ) can yield a reduction of about 10% in the heating power density required to enable writing in thermally assisted MRAM cells.

MRAM are already used in low density applications such as microcontrollers or for spatial/avionics applications where they benefit from their radiation hardness. Thermally assisted writing allows extending the downsize scalability of both FIMS and STT-MRAM below the 20nm node. Within a few years, MRAM can play an important role in the memory hierarchy of electronic circuits. They may be first used as DRAM replacement below the 20nm node and in a second step even closer the logic units (Fig.10).

A method to switch the magnetization of the free layer in magnetic tunnel junctions with perpendicular anisotropy is demonstrated. It consists in assisting the spin transfer switching of the magnetization by a thermally induced reorientation of the free layer magnetic anisotropy from out-of-plane to in-plane. The junction temperature increase is due to the Joule dissipation around the tunnel barrier produced by the same pulse of current which generates the spin transfer torque. This magnetic reorientation allows the spin transfer torque efficiency to be maximal since the spin polarization of the current is perpendicular to the magnetization of the free layer. Such a thermally assisted switching allows designing highly down-size scalable magnetoresistive random access memory cells with improved write efficiency.

In magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ), synthetic antiferromagnets (SAF) are usually used as reference layer to minimize dipolar interactions induced between this layer and the free layer (FL). We show here that the use of SAF allows us to reduce the asymmetry of the FL reversal due to stray fields in nanosized MTJs with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

In this letter, we first show electrical spin injection in the germanium conduction band at room temperature and modulate the spin signal by applying a gate voltage to the channel. The corresponding signal modulation agrees well with the predictions of spin diffusion models. Then by setting a temperature gradient between germanium and the ferromagnet, we create a thermal spin accumulation in germanium without any tunnel charge current. We show that temperature gradients yield larger spin accumulations than pure electrical spin injection but, due to competing microscopic effects, the thermal spin accumulation in germanium remains surprisingly almost unchanged under the application of a gate voltage to the channel., 7 pages, 3 figures

We have determined the write power density dependence on heating pulse width and antiferromagnet (AF) thickness using magnetic tunnel junctions whose storage layer is exchange biased with IrMn or FeMn. An increase in write power density needed to write the storage layer has been observed for both AF as pulse width is decreased from 0.1 ms to 10 ns. Quasistatic blocking temperatures (Tb) were measured on both full sheet and patterned samples, showing a reduction in Tb for patterned samples which we link to process induced damages. Power-temperature relationship was established based on a correspondence between writing power for long pulse duration and quasistatic Tb measurement. Both write power density and associated temperature results show a dependence of the Tb on AF thickness at pulse width as short as 10 ns. Particularly for IrMn, the relationship between write power and pulse width becomes weakly dependent on the AF thickness above a certain AF thickness. The write power density is significantly low...

In order to improve the magnetic and electrical properties of low resistance alumina based magnetic tunnel junctions, an off-axis method of sputtering has been investigated. It is shown that the tunnel magnetoresistance ratio can be greatly increased when there is an offset between the target and the wafer axes during the deposition of the ultrathin aluminum layer (off-axis sputtering) prior to its natural oxidation. The ferromagnetic coupling between the pinned and the free layer through the alumina barrier is also reduced compared to a classical on-axis deposition. This observation is interpreted as an improvement of the barrier quality, reducing both the roughness and the pinholes density. We assume that when the Al layer is sputtered off-axis, the magnetic and aluminum layers are protected from energetic neutralized Ar atoms bombardment.

The magnetic switching of the exchange biased storage layer in thermally assisted magnetic random access memory cells has been studied in the nanosecond time domain. Under reversed static external field, the magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) were subjected to current heating pulses long enough to heat the structure above the blocking temperature of the antiferromagnetic layer. The magnetic response of the storage layer was characterized by single-shot real-time measurement of MTJ resistance. The switching of the storage layer exhibits stochastic fluctuations. Nevertheless, using a heating current density of 4.7×106 A/cm2 corresponding to a bias voltage of 1.8 V, the switching takes place in less than 4 ns under 5 mT. Interestingly, the probability of switching versus pulse duration exhibits characteristic periodic steps which are ascribed to a combined effect of the applied field and spin transfer produced by the heating current pulses.

International audience; This paper reports sub-nanosecond precessional spin-transfer switching in elliptical magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars. This result is obtained in samples integrating a synthetic antiferromagnetic perpendicular polarizer and a tunnel junction with in-plane magnetized electrodes. The out-of-plane precession of the free layer magnetization results in oscillations of the switching probability as a function of the pulse width. At 9.25 MA/cm2 current density, these oscillations have a period of 1 ns with a high degree of coherence.