Third meeting, 18.06.2024

Given by: Nadav Am-Shalom

Title: All-electrical skyrmionic magnetic tunnel junction

Abstract:

Magnetic skyrmions, intricate spin textures, are promising as nanoscale, mobile bits for sustainable computing. However, their potential has been hindered by the lack of devices for deterministic electrical readout. We present a breakthrough: a wafer-scale chiral magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) hosting a single skyrmion. Our MTJ reliably nucleates skyrmions with fixed polarity, offering a large readout signal (20–70% relative to uniform magnetization) directly linked to skyrmion size. It stabilizes differently sized skyrmions at zero field, achieving three non-volatile electrical states. With significantly lower switching energies (1,000 times less than current methods), our device can electrically write and delete skyrmions to uniform states. Unlike conventional MTJs, it uses applied voltage to mimic magnetic fields, reshaping switching energetics and kinetics for deterministic bidirectional switching. Our platform supports efficient large-scale readout and lateral manipulation of skyrmionic bits, laying groundwork for all-electrical skyrmionic device architectures. This wafer-scale implementation promises advances in multibit memory and unconventional computing using chiral spin textures.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07131-7

Discussion:

Nadav presented a recently published work on novel device for data storage, the key application for magnetic materials. He thoroughly explained their fabrication process and suggested how it can be improved using the capabilities we have in the nano center. He explained their experimental method and simulations and discussed their results.