Influence of domain wall interactions on nanosecond switching in magnetic tunnel junctions

Jan Vogel (1) , Wolfgang Kuch (2, 3) , Riccardo Hertel (4) , Julio Camarero (5) , Keiki Fukumoto (2, 3) , Fabien Romanens (1) , Stefania Pizzini (1) , Marlio Bonfim (1, 6) , Frédéric Petroff (7) , Alain Fontaine (1) , Jürgen Kirschner (2)

1 LLN - Laboratoire Louis Néel
2 MPI-HALLE - Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik
3 FU BERLIN - Institut für Experimentalphysik
4 IFF - Institute of Solid State Research [Jülich]
5 FMC - Departamento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada [Madrid]
6 Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica
7 Laboratoire Albert Fert (ex-UMPhy Unité mixte de physique CNRS/Thales)

We have obtained microscopic evidence of the influence of domain wall stray fields on the nanosecond magnetization switching in magnetic trilayer systems. The nucleation barrier initiating the magnetic switching of the soft magnetic Fe20Ni80 layer in magnetic tunnel junction-like FeNi/Al2O3/Co trilayers is considerably lowered by stray fields generated by domain walls present in the hard magnetic Co layer. This internal bias field can significantly increase the local switching speed of the soft layer. The effect is visualized using nanosecond time- and layer-resolved magnetic domain imaging and confirmed by micromagnetic simulations.

Mots clés: Magnetization reversal; Magnetic domains; Domain walls; PEEM; Magnetic imaging; Micromagnetic simulations

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]

Jan Vogel, Wolfgang Kuch, Riccardo Hertel, Julio Camarero, Keiki Fukumoto, et al.. Influence of domain wall interactions on nanosecond switching in magnetic tunnel junctions. Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015), 2005, 72, pp.220402(R). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevB.72.220402⟩. ⟨hal-00008342⟩