Communications of the ACM
Researchers Demonstrate New Way to Control Nonvolatile Magnetic Memory Devices
Cornell University professor Dan Ralph
Credit: Cornell University
The spin Hall effect is useful for memory applications because it can switch magnetic poles back and forth, according to researchers at Cornell University.
They say the physical phenomenon offers a new way to make energy-efficient, reliable nonvolatile magnetic memory devices that retain information without electric power. The team discovered that the spin Hall effect in the metal tantalum can be twice as strong as in any material previously investigated, and can provide an efficient new way to manipulate magnetic moments.
"The spin Hall effect is interesting because it's a bit of physics people haven't paid all that much attention to using in applications," says Cornell professor Dan Ralph. He says their device rivals the leading nonvolatile magnetic memory technology, called the magnetic tunnel junction. When an electrical current passes perpendicular to the layers of such a junction, one magnetic layer polarizes the electrons, functioning as a filter to generate a spin-polarized current. The next layer can absorb this spin current and receive a torque to flip the magnet.
Unlike the current technology, the new design uses different pathways for reading and writing information, which is slightly less space efficient, but with as good or better results for switching efficiency and overall reliability.
From Cornell Chronicle
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