Antiferromagnetic CuMnAs multi-level memory cell with microelectronic compatibility.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28524862.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms15434 and PMC identifier 5454531.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Antiferromagnets offer a unique combination of properties including the radiation and magnetic field hardness, the absence of stray magnetic fields, and the spin-dynamics frequency scale in terahertz. Recent experiments have demonstrated that relativistic spin-orbit torques can provide the means for an efficient electric control of antiferromagnetic moments. Here we show that elementary-shape memory cells fabricated from a single-layer antiferromagnet CuMnAs deposited on a III-V or Si substrate have deterministic multi-level switching characteristics. They allow for counting and recording thousands of input pulses and responding to pulses of lengths downscaled to hundreds of picoseconds. To demonstrate the compatibility with common microelectronic circuitry, we implemented the antiferromagnetic bit cell in a standard printed circuit board managed and powered at ambient conditions by a computer via a USB interface. Our results open a path towards specialized embedded memory-logic applications and ultra-fast components based on antiferromagnets.