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R. Orio, J. Ender, W. Goes, S. Fiorentini, S. Selberherr, V. Sverdlov:
"About the Switching Energy of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction determined by Spin-Orbit Torque and Voltage-Controlled Magnetic Anisotropy";
Talk: 2022 IEEE Latin American Electron Devices Conference (LAEDC), Puebla, Mexico; 2022-06-04 - 2022-06-06; in: "2022 IEEE Latin American Electron Devices Conference (LAEDC)", 978-1-6654-9768-8, (2022), ISBN: 978-1-6654-9768-8; 1 - 4.

We demonstrate the switching of a three-terminal magnetoresistive random access memory cell based on spin-orbit torque with the support of voltage control of magnetic anisotropy and spin-transfer torque. It is shown that the critical current for switching can be reduced by about 40% due to the reduction of the magnetic anisotropy caused by a voltage applied through the magnetic tunnel junction. This leads to a reduction of 64% of the energy consumed for the input spin-orbit bias. However, it is also demonstrated that the current flowing through the magnetic tunnel junction is an additional source of energy dissipation. Therefore, a compromise between both components to minimize the total energy consumption is found. Moreover, we propose a switching energy-time product as a figure of merit for the efficiency of the switching scheme.

Spin-orbit torque, voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy, spin-transfer torque, magnetic tunnel junction, MRAM

http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LAEDC54796.2022.9908222