Multilevel Transitions of Closely Arranged Spin Valve Pillars Using Spin Transfer Switching
- Resource Type
- Periodical
- Authors
- Funabashi, N.; Machida, K.; Aoshima, K.; Miyamoto, Y.; Kawamura, N.; Kuga, K.; Shimidzu, N.
- Source
- IEEE Transactions on Magnetics IEEE Trans. Magn. Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on. 44(11):2519-2522 Nov, 2008
- Subject
- Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Spin valves
Sociotechnical systems
Electrodes
Optical modulation
Magnetic modulators
Copper
Magnetization
Iron
Magnetostriction
Magnetic switching
Magnetooptical Kerr effect
spin transfer switching
spin valve
- Language
- ISSN
- 0018-9464
1941-0069
Two closely arranged spin valve pillars sharing a pair of top and bottom electrodes were fabricated and their spin transfer switching (STS) characteristics were investigated. Each pillar was a 300 $\times$ 100-nm rectangle, such that the distance $d$ between two pillars was varied up to 1 $\mu{\hbox{m}}$ . The STS curves of a single pillar and closely arranged pillars with the distance $d$ of 1 $\mu{\hbox{m}}$ showed single-step transitions, but the STS curves of closely arranged pillars with the distance $d$ of 0.3 $\mu{\hbox{m}}$ showed clear two-step transitions. We found that the plateau width of the intermediate resistive state of the two-step transitions can be controlled by the distance $d$ . The basis for this stable intermediate resistive state seemed to be magnetic interactions and the intrinsic switching mode of STS.