Realizing an Isotropically Coercive Magnetic Layer for Memristive Applications by Analogy to Dry Friction

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of realizing a spintronic memristive device based on the dependence of the tunnel conductance on the relative angle between the magnetization of the two magnetic electrodes in in-plane magnetized tunnel junctions. For this, it is necessary to design a free layer whose magnetization can be stabilized along several or even any in-plane direction between the parallel and the antiparallel magnetic configurations. We experimentally show that this can be achieved by exploiting antiferromagnet-ferromagnet exchange interactions in a regime where the antiferromagnet is thin enough to induce enhanced coercivity and no exchange bias. The frustration of exchange interactions at the interfaces due to competing ferro- and antiferromagnetic interactions is at the origin of an isotropic dissipation mechanism yielding isotropic coercivity. From a modeling point of view, it is shown that this isotropic dissipation can be described by a dry friction term in the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. The influence of this dry friction term on the magnetization dynamics of an in-plane magnetized layer submitted to a rotating in-plane field is investigated both analytically and numerically. The possibility to control the free layer magnetization orientation in an in-plane magnetized magnetic tunnel junction by using the spin transfer torque from an additional perpendicular polarizer is also investigated through macrospin simulation. It is shown that the memristor function can be achieved by the injection of current pulses through the stack in the presence of an in-plane static field transverse to the reference layer magnetization, the aim of which is to limit the magnetization rotation between 0° and 180°.