Micromagnetic analysis of Heusler alloy-based perpendicular double barrier synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer MTJs

Authors

Abstract

Abstract We investigate spin transfer torque switching in a perpendicular double barrier synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer MTJ stack using micromagnetic simulations. For the material used in free layers, we use two different Cobalt-based Heusler alloys and compare their performance on the basis of switching speed, thermal stability and Tunnel magnetoresistance. We show that for Heusler alloys switching from one state to other is significantly faster but they suffer from the drawback of low thermal stability.

Keywords

• Synthetic antiferromagnet
• Heusler alloys
• Magnetic tunnel junctions
• Micromagnetic simulations
• Perpendicular anisotropy