Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique

Hitachi, Ltd.

Université Paris Sud Xi

Commissariat a L'energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives

Stmicroelectronics S.a.

Université Paris—sud

Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble

Universite De Paris Sud (Paris Xi)

Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique-Cnrs

Université De Paris-Sud Xi

Thibaut Devolder

Riichiro Takemura

Claude Chappert

Joerg Wunderlich

Bryan Gallagher

Jan Zemen

Bernard Dieny

Richard P Fournel

Ricardo Sousa

David Arfon Williams

Tomas Jungwirth

Bertrand Lacoste

Joo-Von Kim

Cedric Maufront

David Williams

Brian Gallagher

Kenchi Ito

A magnetic device includes a first magnetic layer, known as storage layer, having a uniaxial anisotropy with an easy magnetization axis in the plane of the storage layer and having a magnetization of variable direction having two positions of equilibrium along the easy magnetization axis, a second magnetic layer, known as electron spin polarization layer, having a magnetization perpendicular to that of the storage layer and situated out of plane of the electron spin polarization layer, a device configured to make circulate in the layers, and perpendicularly thereto, a current to switch from one position of equilibrium of the direction of magnetization of the storage layer to the other. The device further includes a device to apply a magnetic field, known as transverse field, the direction of which is substantially parallel to the plane of the storage layer and substantially perpendicular to the easy magnetization axis of the storage layer.

Magnetic device with spin polarisation

A method of operating a magnetoresistive device is described. The device comprises a ferromagnetic region configured to exhibit magnetic anisotropy and to allow magnetisation thereof to be switched between at least first and second orientations and a gate capacitively coupled to the ferromagnetic region. The method comprises applying an electric field pulse to the ferromagnetic region so as to cause orientation of magnetic anisotropy to change for switching magnetisation between the first and second orientations.

Magnetoresistive device

Method of controlling a magnetoresistive device using an electric field pulse

A magnetoresistive memory element including a trapped magnetic region and a free magnetic region separated by a barrier layer. The free magnetic region comprises a stacking of at least two antiferromagnetically-coupled ferromagnetic layers, a layer magnetic moment vector being associated with each layer, the resulting magnetic moment vector, equal to the sum of the layer magnetic moment vectors, having an amplitude smaller than at least 40% of the amplitude of the layer magnetic moment vector of maximum amplitude. The anisotropy field and/or the demagnetizing field tensor is not identical for the at least two ferromagnetic layers, whereby the angular deviations of the layer magnetic moment vectors are different at the time of the application of an external magnetic field, which enables at least two methods for directly writing into the memory element, as well as its initialization.

MRAM element

Growing community of inventors

Massy, France

Thibaut Devolder