Perpendicular-anisotropy magnetic tunnel junction switched by spin-Hall-assisted spin-transfer torque

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Abstract
We investigate the magnetization switching induced by spin-Hall-assisted spin-transfer torque (STT) in a three-terminal device consisting of a perpendicular-anisotropy magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and an β -W strip. Magnetization dynamics in free layer of MTJ is simulated by solving numerically a modified Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. The influences of spin-Hall write current (density, duration and direction) on the STT switching are evaluated. We find that the switching speed of a STT-MTJ can be significantly improved (reduced to −2 ) with an appropriate duration (~0.5 ns). Finally we develop an electrical model of three-terminal MTJ/ β -W device with Verilog-A language and perform transient simulation of switching a 4 T/1MTJ/1 β -W memory cell with Spectre simulator. Simulation results demonstrate that spin-Hall-assisted STT-MTJ has advantages over conventional STT-MTJ in write speed and energy.

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