SBIR Phase I: Reduction Of The Critical Current In Spin Transfer Switching Through Anisotropy Engineering

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在通过磁性材料的创新应用来降低自旋转移开关（STS）临界电流。STS允许在不使用外部磁场的情况下操纵纳米级铁磁体的磁序参数，并且被认为是磁性随机存取存储器（MRAM）可扩展性的关键组成部分。实现基于STS的实用自旋依赖电子器件的主要技术障碍之一是开关所需的大电流。降低STS临界电流的一种方法是对铁磁体进行磁工程，使其具有实现开关所需的精确特性。这个临界电流已经降低到10^6 A/cm2，但是，还需要进一步降低一个数量级。通过进一步的创新材料研究，对薄亚微米铁磁材料的面外各向异性进行磁工程化处理，可能会导致这种情况的减少。通过创新材料的研究来控制磁各向异性已经有了一些研究，但将这些研究应用到实际器件中还没有。降低STS临界电流对于使自旋依赖的电子器件用于存储、逻辑和振荡器器件至关重要。这些固态器件有可能推动电子技术的进步，并创造一个全新的半导体行业。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses decreasing the Spin Transfer Switching (STS) critical current through the innovative application of magnetic materials. STS allows for the manipulation of the magnetic order parameter of nano-scale ferromagnets without the use of external magnetic fields and is recognized as a key component for scalability of magnetic random access memory (MRAM). One of the major technical barriers to realize practical spin dependent electronic devices based on STS is the large current needed for switching. One approach to reduce the STS critical current is to magnetically engineer ferromagnets to have precisely the characteristics needed to enable switching. This critical current has been reduced to 10^6 A/cm2, however, a further order of magnitude reduction is needed. Magnetically engineering the out-of-plane anisotropy of thin sub-micron ferromagnetic through further innovative materials research could lead to this reduction.Control of the magnetic anisotropy through innovative materials research has been studied but applying these to practical devices has not. Reduction of the STS critical current is vital to the enabling a spin-dependant electronic devices for storage, logic, and oscillator devices. These solid-state devices have the potential to drive improvements in electronics, and create an entire new sector of the semiconductor industry.