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A domain wall device with electrical control

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 378–379 (2021)Cite this article

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Magnetic tunnel junctions with a hybrid free layer design can be used to electrically read and write domain walls.

In the past few decades, data-intensive technologies such as wearables, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things have increased the need for high-performance memory devices. For such applications, memory devices that have small footprints, high access and write speeds, and low power consumption are required, and solid-state magnetic memories that can be controlled by electrical current are a promising technology in this regard. The magnetization in these devices can be manipulated electrically via spin-transfer torque (STT) and spin–orbit torque (SOT), and magnetoresistive random-access memories based on STT (STT-MRAM) have already been commercialized. Domain wall motion in magnetic structures has also been proposed for use in the development of memory devices1, as well as logic devices2 and neuromorphic computing3, due to features such as high speed, low power consumption and flexible design. Cascadable logic devices based on SOT-driven magnetic domain wall motion were, in particular, recently demonstrated as a viable platform for scalable all-electric magnetic memory-in-logic2.

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Fig. 1: Magnetic domain wall creation, motion and detection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Superlattices and Microstructures, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yu Sheng, Yucai Li & Kaiyou Wang

  2. College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yucai Li & Kaiyou Wang

  3. Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, Beijing, China

    Kaiyou Wang

Authors
  1. Yu Sheng
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  2. Yucai Li
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  3. Kaiyou Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kaiyou Wang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Sheng, Y., Li, Y. & Wang, K. A domain wall device with electrical control. Nat Electron 4, 378–379 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00605-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00605-w

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