International Business Machines Corporation

Rai Moriya

Luc Thomas

Stuart P Parkin

A method for use with a magnetic racetrack device includes placing domain walls having a first structure and domain walls having a second, different structure along the racetrack at stable positions corresponding to different regions within the device. The domain walls having the first structure and the domain walls having the second structure occupy alternating positions along the racetrack. A current pulse is applied to the racetrack, so that each of the domain walls moves to an adjacent region. This results in a transformation of the domain walls having the first structure into domain walls having the second structure, and vice versa. The first structure may be a vortex structure and the second structure may be a transverse structure.

Magnetic racetrack with current-controlled motion of domain walls within an undulating energy landscape

A racetrack memory device facilitates the manipulation of a series of domain walls along the racetrack. The racetrack is designed so that the domain wall energy increases and decreases in a continuous fashion between adjacent pinning sites, so that a domain wall does not become stuck between them. The variation in the domain wall energy along the racetrack can be provided by continuous variations of the racetrack's width (while maintaining constant thickness) and/or cross-sectional area (in which the racetrack dimensions are varied in both directions perpendicular to the length of the racetrack). Alternatively, this variation in domain wall energy may be provided by varying the magnetic properties of the racetrack along the racetrack while otherwise keeping the shape and size of the racetrack unchanged. In addition, variations of the racetrack's composition and/or shape can be used.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Rai Moriya