Journal
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 105, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.4895735
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Funding
- DARPA program on Nonvolatile Logic (NVL)
- National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS)
- FAME Center, one of six centers of the Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research network (STARnet), a Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) program - Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Arabia [20092383]
- California Center of Excellence on Green Nanotechnology
- Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship
- TUBITAK Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey
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We study the current-driven perpendicular magnetization switching in Ta/CoFeB(wedge)/[TaOx or MgO/TaOx] devices with a lateral structural asymmetry introduced by a varying CoFeB thickness. In these devices, an in-plane current can generate a field-like torque and its corresponding effective magnetic field (H-z(FL)) is out-of-plane, which can deterministically switch perpendicular magnetization at zero magnetic field. Experimental results indicate that the method used for breaking lateral structural symmetry greatly affects the resulting field-like torque, and that the gradient of perpendicular anisotropy, resulting from the CoFeB thickness variation, is not by itself sufficient to give rise to the current-induced H-z(FL). Analysis of the oxidation gradient at the CoFeB/TaOx interface indicates that the oxidation gradient may play a more important role than the gradient of magnetic anisotropy for the generation of H-z(FL). For practical applications, the demonstration of perpendicular magnetization switching in Ta/CoFeB(wedge)/MgO/TaOx devices potentially allows for using MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions for readout in three-terminal memory devices without the need for external magnetic fields. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.
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