Field-free ultrafast magnetization reversal of a nanodevice by a chirped current pulse via spin-orbit torque

Abstract

We investigated the magnetization reversal of a perpendicularly magnetized nanodevice using a chirped current pulse (CCP) via spin-orbit torques (SOT). Our findings demonstrate that both the field-like (FL) and damping-like (DL) components of SOT in CCP can efficiently induce ultrafast magnetization reversal without any symmetry-breaking means. For a wide frequency range of the CCP, the minimal current density obtained is significantly smaller compared to the current density of conventional SOT-reversal. This ultrafast reversal is due to the CCP triggering enhanced energy absorption (emission) of the magnetization from (to) the FL- and DL-components of SOT before (after) crossing over the energy barrier. We also verified the robustness of the CCP-driven magnetization reversal at room temperature. Moreover, this strategy can be extended to switch the magnetic states of perpendicular synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) and ferrimagnetic (SFi) nanodevices. Therefore, these studies enrich the basic understanding of field-free SOT-reversal and provide a novel way to realize ultrafast SOT-MRAM devices with various free layer designs: ferromagnetic, SAF, and SFi.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure