Hot-Spot Mediated Current-Induced Resistance Change in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

Volumn 39, Issue 5 II, 2003, Pages 2833-2835

  Liu, Yaowen ^a   Zhang, Zongzhi ^a   Freitas, P P ^a,b  

^a INESC   (Portugal)

^b INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO   (Portugal)

Author keywords

Current induced switching; Hot spots; Magnetic tunnel junctions; Pinholes

Indexed keywords

CRITICAL CURRENT DENSITY (SUPERCONDUCTIVITY); CURRENT VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS; ELECTRIC RESISTANCE MEASUREMENT; GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE; MAGNETIC SEMICONDUCTORS; MAGNETIZATION; REMANENCE; SWITCHING CIRCUITS;

MAGNETIC TUNNEL JUNCTIONS;

TUNNEL JUNCTIONS;

EID: 0141953090     PISSN: 00189464     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2003.815727     Document Type: Article

References (12)

1. J. C. Slonczewski, "Current-driven excitation of magnetic multilayers," J. Magn. Magn. Mater., vol. 159, pp. L1-L7, 1996.
2. L. Berger, "Emission of spin waves by a magnetic multilayer traversed by a current," Phys. Rev. B, vol. 54, pp. 9353-9358, 1996.
3. K. Bussmann, G. A. Prinz, S. F. Cheng, and D. Wang, "Switching of vertical giant magnetoresistance devices by current through the device," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 75, pp. 2476-2478, 1999.
4. J. A. Katine, F. J. Albert, and R. A. Buhrman, "Current-induced realignment of magnetic domains in nanostractured Cu/Co multilayer pillars," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 76, pp. 354-356, 2000.
5. J. A. Katine, F. J. Albert, R. A. Buhrman, E. B. Myers, and D. C. Ralph, "Current-driven magnetization reversal and spin-wave excitation in Co/Cu/ Co pillars," Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 84, pp. 3149-3152, 2000.
6. E. B. Myers, F. J. Albert, J. C. Sankey, E. Bonet, R. A. Buhrman, and D. C. Ralph, "Thermally activated magnetic reversal induced by a spin-polarized current," Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 89, p. 196 801, 2002.
7. J. Grollier, V. Cros, A. Hamzic, J. M. George, H. Jaffres, A. Fert, G. Faini, J. B. Youssef, and H. Legall, "Spin-polarized current induced switching in Co/Cu/Co pillars," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 78, pp. 3663-3665, 2001.
8. J. Grollier, D. Lacour, V. Cros, A. Hamzic, A. Vaures, A. Fert, D. Adam, and G. Faini, "Switching the magnetic configuration of a spin valve by current-induced domain wall motion," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 92, pp. 4825-4827, 2002.
9. Y. Liu, Z. Z. Zhang, J. Wang, P. P. Freitas, and J. L. Martins, "Current-induced switching in low resistance magnetic tunnel junctions," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 93, pp. 8385-8387, 2003.
10. Y. Liu, Z. Zhang, P. P. Freitas, and J. L. Martins, "Current-induced magnetization switching in magnetic tunnel junctions," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 82, pp. 2871-2873, 2003.
11. Z. G. Zhang, Z. Z. Zhang, and P. P. Freitas, "Ion-beam deposited low resistance magnetic tunnel junctions prepared by a two-step oxidation process," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 93, pp. 8552-8554, 2003.
12. J. Wang, Y. Liu, P. P. Freitas, E. Snoeck, and J. L. Martins, "Continuous thin barriers for low-resistance spin-dependent tunnel junctions," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 93, pp. 8367-8369, 2003.