Enhanced stability in spin transfer nanopillars due to a Fe/Gd/Fe trilayer

  1. Romera, Miguel 4
  2. Grollier, Julie 2
  3. Collin, Sophie 2
  4. Devolder, Thibaut 3
  5. Cros, Vincent 2
  6. Muñoz, Manuel 1
  7. Prieto, José L. 4
  1. 1 IMM-Instituto de Microelectrónica de Madrid (CNM-CSIC) 4 , Isaac Newton 8, PTM, E-28760 Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain
  2. 2 Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales and Université Paris-Sud 2 , 1 avenue A. Fresnel, 91767 Palaiseau, France
  3. 3 Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale, Univ. Paris-Sud 3 , 91405 Orsay, France and UMR 8622, CNRS, 91405 Orsay, France
  4. 4 Instituto de Sistemas Optoelectrónicos y Microtecnología (ISOM), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid 1 , Avda. Complutense s/n, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
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Revista:
Applied Physics Letters

ISSN: 0003-6951,  1077-3118

Año de publicación: 2013

Volumen: 103

Número: 12

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1063/1.4821510 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Applied Physics Letters

Resumen

A sharp antiferromagnetic boundary of Fe/Gd is found to affect notoriously the critical current for spin transfer torque (STT). Transport measurements performed on nano-patterned spin valves show that when a Fe/Gd/Fe is added as a top layer, the effect of spin transfer on the free layer is dramatically reduced. The critical current increases up to one order of magnitude at 10 K and five times at room temperature. We show that this increase cannot be fully explained by the macrospin approximation and we argue that it is due to a torque at the Gd/Fe interface that opposes the STT in the free layer.

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