Energy‐Efficient Ultrafast SOT‐MRAMs Based on Low‐Resistivity Spin Hall Metal Au <sub>0.25</sub> Pt <sub>0.75</sub>
Abstract
Many key electronic technologies (e.g., large-scale computing, machine learning, and superconducting electronics) require new memories that are at the same time fast, reliable, energy-efficient, and of low-impedance, which has remained a challenge. Nonvolatile magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAMs) driven by spin–orbit torques (SOTs) have promise to be faster and more energy-efficient than conventional semiconductor and spin-transfer-torque magnetic memories. It is reported that the spin Hall effect of low-resistivity Au0.25Pt0.75 thin films enables ultrafast antidamping-torque switching of SOT-MRAM devices for current pulse widths as short as 200 ps. If combined with industrial-quality lithography and already-demonstrated interfacial engineering, an optimized MRAM cell based on Au0.25Pt0.75 can have energy-efficient, ultrafast, and reliable switching, for example, a write energy of <1 fJ (<50 fJ) for write error rate of 50% (<10−5) for 1 ns pulses. The antidamping torque switching of the Au0.25Pt0.75 devices is ten times faster than expected from a rigid macrospin model, most likely because of the fast micromagnetics due to the enhanced nonuniformity within the free layer. The feasibility of Au0.25Pt0.75-based SOT-MRAMs as a candidate for ultrafast, reliable, energy-efficient, low-impedance, and unlimited-endurance memory is demonstrated. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim