Impact of Spin-Orbit Torque on Spin-Transfer Torque Switching in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

The paper presents our simulated results showing the substantial improvement of both switching speed and energy consumption in a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (p-MTJ), a core unit of Spin-Transfer-Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM), by the help of additional Spin-Orbit-Torque (SOT) write pulse current (WP_SOT). An STT-SOT hybrid torque module for OOMMF simulation is implemented to investigate the switching behavior of a 20 nm cell in the p-MTJ. We found that the assistance of WP_SOT to STT write pulse current (WP_STT) have a huge influence on the switching behavior of the free layer in the p-MTJ. For example, we could dramatically reduce the switching time (t_SW) by 80% and thereby reduce the write energy over 70% as compared to those in the absence of the WP_SOT. Even a very tiny amplitude of WP_SOT (J^SOT of the order of 10² A/m²) substantially assists to reduce the critical current density for switching of the free layer and thereby decreases the energy consumption as well. It is worth to be pointed out that the energy can be saved further by tuning the WP_SOT parameters, i.e., amplitude and duration along at the threshold WP_STT. Our findings show that the proposed STT-SOT hybrid switching scheme has a great impact on the MRAM technology seeking the high speed and low energy consumption.