Electric-field-induced magnetization switching in CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions with high junction resistance

We show the electric-field induced magnetization switching for CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions with thick MgO barrier layer of 2.8 nm, whose resistance-area product is 176 kΩ μm2, and achieve the small switching energy of 6.3 fJ/bit. The increase of the junction resistance is expected to suppress the energy consumption due to the Joule heating during the switching; however, the energy is still dominated by the Joule energy rather than the charging energy. This is because the junction resistance decreases more rapidly for junctions with thicker MgO as bias voltage increases.

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