Heterogeneous Memristive Devices Enabled by Magnetic Tunnel Junction Nanopillars Surrounded by Resistive Silicon Switches

Yu Zhang (1) , Xiaoyang Lin (2) , Jean-Paul Adam (3) , Guillaume Agnus (3) , Wang Kang (4) , Wenlong Cai , Jean-René Coudevylle (3) , Nathalie Isac (3) , Jianlei Yang (5) , Huaiwen Yang , Kaihua Cao , Hushan Cui , Deming Zhang , Youguang Zhang (6) , Chao Zhao (7) , Weisheng Zhao (8) , Dafiné Ravelosona (3)

1 imagine - Extraction de Caractéristiques et Identification
2 BUAA - Beihang University
3 C2N - Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies
4 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides
5 PITT - University of Pittsburgh
6 Fert Beijing Institute and School of Electronic and Information Engineering
7 CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Changchun Branch]
8 IEF - Institut d'électronique fondamentale

Emerging non-volatile memories (NVMs) have currently attracted great interest for their potential applications in advanced low-power information storage and processing technologies. Conventional NVMs, such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and resistive random access memory (RRAM) suffer from limitations of low tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR), low access speed or finite endurance. NVMs with synergetic advantages are still highly desired for future computer architectures. Here, we report a heterogeneous memristive device composed of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) nanopillar surrounded by resistive silicon switches, named resistively enhanced MTJ (Re-MTJ), that may be utilized for novel memristive memories, enabling new functionalities that are inaccessible for conventional NVMs. The Re-MTJ device features a high ON/OFF ratio of >1000% and multilevel resistance behaviour by combining magnetic switching together with resistive switching mechanisms. The magnetic switching originates from the MTJ, while the resistive switching is induced by a point-switching filament process that is related to the mobile oxygen ions. Microscopic evidence of silicon aggregated as nanocrystals along the 2 edges of the nanopillars verifies the synergetic mechanism of the heterogeneous memristive device. This device may provide new possibilities for advanced memristive memory and computing architectures, e.g., in-memory computing and neuromorphics.

Mots clés: heterogeneous device; resistive switching; magnetic tunnel junction; silicon filaments; spintronics

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Autre [cond-mat.other]

Yu Zhang, Xiaoyang Lin, Jean-Paul Adam, Guillaume Agnus, Wang Kang, et al.. Heterogeneous Memristive Devices Enabled by Magnetic Tunnel Junction Nanopillars Surrounded by Resistive Silicon Switches. Advanced Electronic Materials, 2018, 4 (3), pp.1700461. ⟨10.1002/aelm.201700461⟩. ⟨hal-02327425⟩