Abstract
Spintronic devices offer low power consumption, built-in memory, high scalability and reconfigurability, and could therefore provide an alternative to traditional semiconductor-based electronic devices. However, for spintronic devices to be useful in computing, complementary logic operation using spintronic logic gates is likely to be required. Here we report a complementary spin logic device using electric-field controlled spin–orbit torque switching in a heavy metal/ferromagnet/oxide structure. We show that the critical current for spin–orbit-torque-induced switching of perpendicular magnetization can be efficiently modulated by an electric field via the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy effect. Moreover, the polarity of the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy can be tuned through modification of the oxidation state at the ferromagnet/oxide interface. This allows us to create both n-type and p-type spin logic devices and demonstrate complementary logic operation.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015M3D1A1070465, 2017R1A2A2A05069760, 2017M2A2A6A01071238 and 2017R1A2B2006119) and the DGIST R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and ICT (18-BT-02).
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B.-G.P. planned and supervised the study. S.C.B., K.-W.P. and D.-S.K. fabricated the devices and performed the magnetization switching measurement and logic operation. Y.J. and J.P. performed the SPICE simulations. S.C.B., K.-J.L. and B.-G.P. analysed the results and wrote the manuscript.
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Baek, Sh.C., Park, KW., Kil, DS. et al. Complementary logic operation based on electric-field controlled spin–orbit torques. Nat Electron 1, 398–403 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-018-0099-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-018-0099-8
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