Electrically function-switchable magnetic domain-wall memory

Yu Sheng; Weiyang Wang; Yongcheng Deng; Yang Ji; Houzhi Zheng; Kaiyou Wang

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwad093

Electrically function-switchable magnetic domain-wall memory

Natl Sci Rev. 2023 Apr 10;10(10):nwad093. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwad093. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

Yu Sheng¹, Weiyang Wang^{1

2}, Yongcheng Deng¹, Yang Ji^{1

2}, Houzhi Zheng^{1

2}, Kaiyou Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Superlattices and Microstructures, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China.
² College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.

Abstract

Versatile memory is strongly desired for end users, to protect their information in the information era. In particular, bit-level switchable memory that can be switched from rewritable to read-only function would allow end users to prevent important data being tampered with. However, no such switchable memory has been reported. We demonstrate that the rewritable function can be converted into read-only function by applying a sufficiently large current pulse in a U-shaped domain-wall memory, which comprises an asymmetric Pt/Co/Ru/AlO_x heterostructure with strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Wafer-scale switchable magnetic domain-wall memory arrays on 4-inch Si/SiO₂ substrate are demonstrated. Furthermore, we confirm that the information can be stored in rewritable or read-only states at bit level according to the security needs of end users. Our work not only provides a solution for personal confidential data, but also paves the way for developing multifunctional spintronic devices.

Keywords: SOT-MRAM; information security; magnetic domain-wall; spin orbit torques; spintronics.