Atomistic investigation of the temperature and size dependence of the energy barrier of CoFeB/MgO nanodots

TY - JOUR

T1 - Atomistic investigation of the temperature and size dependence of the energy barrier of CoFeB/MgO nanodots

AU - Meo, A.

AU - Chepulskyy, R.

AU - Apalkov, D.

AU - Chantrell, R. W.

AU - Evans, R. F.L.

N1 - © 2020, The Author(s). Published under license by AIP Publishing. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2020/8/19

Y1 - 2020/8/19

N2 - The balance between low power consumption and high efficiency in memory devices is a major limiting factor in the development of new technologies. Magnetic random access memories (MRAMs) based on CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have been proposed as candidates to replace the current technology due to their non-volatility, high thermal stability, efficient operational performance. Understanding the size and temperature dependence of the energy barrier and the nature of the transition mechanism across the barrier between stable configurations is a key issue in the development of MRAM. Here, we use an atomistic spin model to study the energy barrier to reversal in CoFeB/MgO nanodots to determine the effects of size, temperature, external field. We find that for practical device sizes in the 10-50 nm range, the energy barrier has a complex behavior characteristic of a transition from a coherent to domain wall driven reversal process. Such a transition region is not accessible to simple analytical estimates of the energy barrier preventing a unique theoretical calculation of the thermal stability. The atomistic simulations of the energy barrier give good agreement with experimental measurements for similar systems, which are at the state of the art and can provide guidance to experiments identifying suitable materials and MTJ stacks with the desired thermal stability.

AB - The balance between low power consumption and high efficiency in memory devices is a major limiting factor in the development of new technologies. Magnetic random access memories (MRAMs) based on CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have been proposed as candidates to replace the current technology due to their non-volatility, high thermal stability, efficient operational performance. Understanding the size and temperature dependence of the energy barrier and the nature of the transition mechanism across the barrier between stable configurations is a key issue in the development of MRAM. Here, we use an atomistic spin model to study the energy barrier to reversal in CoFeB/MgO nanodots to determine the effects of size, temperature, external field. We find that for practical device sizes in the 10-50 nm range, the energy barrier has a complex behavior characteristic of a transition from a coherent to domain wall driven reversal process. Such a transition region is not accessible to simple analytical estimates of the energy barrier preventing a unique theoretical calculation of the thermal stability. The atomistic simulations of the energy barrier give good agreement with experimental measurements for similar systems, which are at the state of the art and can provide guidance to experiments identifying suitable materials and MTJ stacks with the desired thermal stability.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092693005&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1063/5.0018909

DO - 10.1063/5.0018909

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85092693005

SN - 0021-8979

VL - 128

JO - Journal of Applied Physics

JF - Journal of Applied Physics

IS - 7

M1 - 0018909

ER -