Patent Application
20140133221
The work leading to this invention has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's seventh framework programme (fp7/2007-2013)/erc grant agreement No. 247368.
The present disclosure relates to magnetic structures and in particular but not exclusively to layered structures capable of maintaining alignment frustrations therein.
In digital memory technologies, one of the main technological approaches to non-volatile memory uses FLASH memory. FLASH memory performs data storage by using charges floating in an oxide layer to provide individual data bit records. FLASH memory is known to have a number of drawbacks in terms of limited lifecycle (maximum read/write cycles), high power requirements, and slow read/write times. These drawbacks are the focus of a number of approaches in the mass storage application field including the use of DRAM caches to mask write latency, use of compression to avoid write amplification, and using over-provisioning to provide clean blocks for write operations.
In addition, and in view of the drawbacks of FLASH and similar solid state electronic memory technologies, there have been proposed some techniques for solid state magnetic memory. In such technologies, the data storage would be provided by some form of magnetic state retention in contrast to the electrical state retention of electronic memory. One such approach is that of Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM). A number of MRAM techniques have been described, including the following.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,226,796 describes synthetic antiferromagnet structures for use in magnetic tunnel junctions in MRAM technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,898,112 describes a synthetic antiferromagnetic structure for magnetoelectronic devices.
“Magnetic Domain-Wall Racetrack Memory”, S. S. P. P. Parkin, M. Hayashi, L. Thomas, Science 320, 190 (2008); and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,834,005, 6,898,132, 6,920,062, 7,031,178, and 7,236,386 describe different examples of a 3-dimensional non-volatile data storage device based on magnetic domain walls moving up shift registers comprising vertical tracks of magnetic material. All of the arrangements presented in these documents use spin transfer to propagate the domain walls. This technology does not use synthetic antiferromagnets at all, rather it uses a shift register arrangement for propagation of magnetic domains.
“Room temperature magnetic quantum cellular automata”, R. P. Cowburn, M. E. Welland, Science 287, 1466-1468 (2000) and “Magnetic nanodots for device applications”, R. P. Cowburn, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. 242, 505-511 (2002) describe a soliton on a chain of magnetostatically parallel coupled ferromagnetic disks arranged adjacent one another in a single plane. This technology provided no synchronous mechanism for propagation, no possibility of putting a stream of bits in the same conduit, and no mechanism for unidirectional propagation of data.
PCT patent application publication no WO2002/041492 describes two systems: one is domain wall logic using magnetic nanowires, the other is the quantum cellular automata system described in Science 287, 1466-1468 (2000) mentioned above using magnetostatically coupled dots carrying a soliton.
Probing antiferromagnetic coupling between nanomagnets, R. P. Cowburn, Phys. Rev. B 65, 092409 (2002) describes chains of magnetostatically coupled ferromagnetic disks with an anisotropy. One of the conclusions of this work was that data could not be reliably propagated over any significant distance because the driving force decayed away. As with the other Cowburn works mentioned above, the disks were in the same plane.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,531,723 describes a magnetoresistance random access memory for improved scalability. This document introduces what is now known as “Toggle MRAM”. The document describes an MRAM cell with a synthetic antiferromagnet of N layers to hold a single data bit. This arrangement provides increased switching volume leading to improved scalability.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,545,906 describes a method of writing to a scalable magnetoresistance random access memory element. This has the same inventors as U.S. Pat. No. 6,531,723 and describes how a localised rotating field for the above N-layered SAF stack can be produced by delaying the current pulses through orthogonal word and bit lines.
Parish M C B, Forshaw M, IEE Proceedings-Circuits Devices and Systems 151 (5) 480-485 showed in a figure six repeat layers of a synthetic antiferromagnet, including ellipticity to create anisotropy, in the context of quantum cellular automata, as in Science 287, 1466-1468 (2000) mentioned above. The focus of this part of the paper is on keeping the layers coupled antiferromagnetically without error. The disclosure is thus very similar to Phys. Rev. B 65, 092409 (2002) mentioned above.
Property variation with shape in magnetic nanoelements, R. P. Cowburn, Invited Topical Review, J. Phys. D 33, R1-R16 (2000); Lateral interface anisotropy in nanomagnets, R. P. Cowburn, D. K. Koltsov, A. O. Adeyeye, M. E. Welland, J. Appl. Phys. 87, 7067-7069 (2000) and Superparamagnetism and the future of magnetic random access memory, R. P. Cowburn, J. Appl. Phys. 93, 9310 (2003), all provide examples of elliptical single layer magnetic structures to create shape anisotropy.
Additional work of R. P. Cowburn is set out in WO2010/055329. This document uses a column of antiferromagnetically coupled discs to produce a memory structure. The structure of this document has a column comprising a plurality of layers of magnetic material, each sized to adopt a single magnetic domain state, and a plurality of layers of non-magnetic material arranged as spacer layers between adjacent ones of the layers of magnetic material; such that successive magnetic layers in the column are magnetically antiparallel coupled. Thereby the column is operable to maintain therein a plurality of stable transitions of an order parameter of the magnetisations between the magnetic layers, the transitions having a chirality.
In the paper published by Albrecht et al, Journal of Applied Physics 97, 103910 (2005) “Magnetic dot arrays with multiple storage layers”, the authors propose a structure consisting two groups of Co—Pd multilayers for multi-bit storage. In this disclosure, the two groups are entirely uncoupled due to a thick interlayer and are separately addressable by virtue of their different coercivities. Thus this has no shift register action and is not scalable beyond two or three bits per stack.
In hard-disk magnetic recording the concepts of ‘exchange coupled composite’ (ECC) media, ‘exchange-spring’ media and ‘graded media’ have been introduced. Examples of these are found in the following publications
These approaches usually involve exchange coupling a low-coercivity and high-coercivity layer with the aim of reducing the strength of applied field required to write a bit without lowering the thermal stability of that bit.
Viewed from a first aspect, there can be provided a structure comprising a plurality of groups of magnetic layers, each group comprising three or more sequential physical properties, the plurality of groups arranged successively with the sequential physical properties of one group aligned in the same direction as the sequential physical properties of each adjacent group. The sequential physical properties of each group provide a resulting net switching field profile along the group that varies from an initial magnetic layer of the group toward a final magnetic layer of the group. Thus a structure can be provided having a predetermined propagation direction.
Viewed from another aspect, there can be provided a storage cell comprising the structure. Thus information storage may be provided.
Viewed from a further aspect, there can be provided a memory device comprising a plurality of storage cells. Thus bulk information storage may be provided.
Viewed from another aspect, there can be provided a state machine comprising a thin film multilayer structure having magnetic layers with resulting net switching field per layer following a profile gradient and antiparallel coupling between ones of the layers, configured to store state information by maintaining therein a stable frustration in an order parameter of magnetic alignments across the layers. Thus order parameter frustrations can be used to maintain state information.
Viewed from a further aspect, there can be provided a memory element comprising: a plurality of magnetic layers; and a plurality of non-magnetic layers between ones of the magnetic layers. Successive magnetic layers have a profile of resulting net switching fields following a decreasing gradient followed by an increasing gradient followed by a further decreasing gradient; and magnetic layer pairs following the decreasing gradient are antiparallel coupled and magnetic layer pairs following the increasing gradient are parallel coupled. Thus a managed profile of resulting net switching field can be provided.
Viewed from another aspect, there can be provided a method of shifting information between magnetic layers in a thin film structure, the method comprising: applying a magnetic field to the thin film structure, the field having a magnitude sufficient to switch the magnetisation direction of a predetermined one of a pair of layers within the thin film structure when that pair of layers holds a frustration between two regions of different magnetisation direction order parameter within the thin film structure. Thus such frustrations can be moved within the structure.
Specific embodiments will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying figures in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
Examples of magnetic structures and methods of operating and utilising the same will now be described with reference to
The present disclosure relates to maintenance and propagation of order parameter frustrations within a structure having a number of magnetic layers. An example of a structure having a plurality of magnetic layers and how the order parameter of the magnetisations can be altered by a frustration is illustrated in
In
In this arrangement, each layer is magnetically antiparallel coupled to each adjacent layer. This means that each layer tends to adopt a magnetisation field direction opposite to that of each of neighbouring layer. These magnetisation field directions are indicated by the arrows representing each layer. Although, for the sake of simplicity of representation, the magnetisation field direction are shown as being roughly parallel to plane of each layer, it is also possible to create the structure using materials that have out of plane magnetisation field directions.
Also illustrated in
Away from the frustration, each magnetic layer is in a low-energy environment, i.e. each of its two nearest neighbours is magnetised anti-parallel to itself. At the frustration, however, there are two magnetic layers which are in a frustrated state—each has one neighbour that is magnetised parallel to it (high energy) and one neighbour that is magnetised anti-parallel to it (low energy). If one of the frustrated disks were to have its magnetisation reversed, then the other frustrated disk would no longer be frustrated, but instead the frustration would move by one magnetic layer and a previously unfrustrated layer would now be frustrated. This region of frustration 12 is:
These are the general condition for a topological soliton. It is a kink soliton as the order parameter changes in passing through the soliton. The order parameter is further illustrated and discussed with reference to
A general discussion of topological magnetic solitons can be found in “Dynamics of Topological Magnetic Solitons, experiment and theory” V. G. Bar'yakhtor, M. V. Chetkin, B. A. Ivanov, S. N. Gadetskii, Springer Tracts in Modern Physics, Vol. 129, 1994, ISBN 3-540-56935-9 and 0-387-26935-9.
To propagate this soliton through the layers of
With reference to
As can be seen in
As mentioned above, the soliton is reliably propagated under the influence of an oscillating or pulsed magnetic field having sufficient intensity along the longitudinal axis of the layered structure to overcome the intrinsic anisotropy of an individual layer. Every half-cycle or pulse of the field acting in the propagation direction of the structure (illustrated by arrow 1 in
The reason that this happens is as follows. Both of the layers in which a given soliton resides have approximately net zero exchange field from their nearest neighbours as they each have one neighbour that has its magnetisation direction parallel aligned and one neighbour that has its magnetisation direction antiparallel aligned. Thus the switching field strength required for each of the layers in the soliton is just that necessary to overcome the intrinsic anisotropy of the layer. As the layers have the anisotropy gradient illustrated in
Whilst the approach described with reference to
An example schematic representation of resetting the anisotropy gradient is shown in
In order to pass the soliton up the reverse slopes of the managed anisotropy gradient (i.e. up a region of increasing anisotropy), an alternative technique is required, as simply insetting an increasing anisotropy region into the structure discussed above with reference to
A suitable approach for dealing with the increasing anisotropy regions of the managed anisotropy gradient is now discussed with reference to
As with the situation illustrated with reference to
Thus again there is a topological soliton. It is a kink soliton as the order parameter changes in passing through the soliton. The discussion of order parameter presented with reference to
To propagate this soliton through the layers of
The present disclosure recognises the respective strengths and weaknesses of the two different structures described above and proposes an approach for utilising a combined approach which enables a useful and workable structure to be established. This combined approach uses the managed anisotropy gradient discussed with reference to
As can be seen from
Thus a managed anisotropy gradient can be established in a sustainable way to enable a structure to contain a large length of decreasing anisotropy gradient region without limitations such as maximum or minimum anisotropy being reached. Thus, a uni-directional structure can be established which allows solitons that are achiral and sharp (and hence dense and energetically stable) to be propagated up a stack using a linear oscillating field.
Considering again the arrangement of
Accordingly, a layered structure having an indefinite number of layers can be made in which a soliton can be reliably propagated in a known and controlled manner under the influence of an applied field.
Having now established the principle of using a layered structure having magnetic layers with varying anisotropies to create a managed anisotropy gradient, it is appropriate to consider that the effect of the managed anisotropy gradient can also be achieved by approaches that vary a property other than the inherent anisotropy of the magnetic layers. Two addition approaches that have been shown to work are varying the inter-layer coupling strength between layers and varying the thickness of the magnetic layers. Each of these will be discussed in greater detail below. Thus, although these alternative approaches create an effect that behaves in the same way as the managed anisotropy gradient discussed above, it is believed to be more appropriate to refer to resulting net switching field. Resulting net switching field is the external field strength necessary to cause one disc of a soliton within a layered structure to switch magnetisation direction along its easy axis of anisotropy. A structure exhibiting a managed net switching field as described herein may be considered to operate in the manner of a ratchet where frustrations in order parameter of magentisation direction can be moved one position at a time through the structure having the managed net switching field profile as described herein. This is influenced by a number of factors as described below.
Hc is the inherent coercivity of the material of the layer and is thus directly related to the anisotropy field strength Hu of the magnetic disk, which represents the externally applied field strength necessary to switch the magnetisation direction along the easy axis of anisotropy when no other field effects act upon the layer. The exact relationship between Hc and Hu depends upon the particular materials involved, although it is believed to be accurate to say that they increase and decrease together (i.e. that if Hu is increased then Hc also increases, although not necessarily in direct proportion). In a theoretical ideal material Hu and HC are equal. In most real materials, the ratio Hc/Hu≦1.
J* is the coupling field (which can be thought of as the coupling strength between adjacent magnetic layers or as the average interaction field in one magnetic layer due the presence of the neighbouring magnetic layer, in any case expressed as a magnetic field) and is unrelated to the anisotropy field strength Hu of the magnetic disk. The parameters that affect J* depend upon the dominant coupling mechanism between magnetic layers. Coupling mechanisms are discussed in more detail below. At this stage it is sufficient to consider that where dominant mechanism is direct or indirect exchange interaction (such as RKKY coupling) then J* is related to both the interface between the magnetic layer and any adjacent non-magnetic layer and the thickness of the magnetic layer itself. The impact of layer thickness is discussed more detail below. Where the dominant mechanism is magnetostatic coupling, J* is a function of the thickness of neighbouring magnetic and non-magnetic layers.
The effect that altering J* has is that where a given layer has different coupling strengths acting on different sides of the layer, there will be in the rest condition with a soliton straddling the given layer an unbalanced net field acting on the layer and thus the applied field strength required to switch the magnetisation direction along the easy axis of anisotropy will be higher for the direction with the stronger coupling field than the direction with the weaker coupling field. The following discussions relating to J* are based upon the magnitude of J*. Where adjacent layers are parallel-coupled J* will be positive and where adjacent layers are anti-parallel coupled, the actual value of J* will be negative.
t is the thickness of the layer and can determine the anisotropy field strength Hu of the magnetic disk. The mechanism by which the thickness alters the anisotropy varies according to the materials system in use. For materials having in-plane magnetisation, there is a tendency for the anisotropy strength to increase slightly with increased layer thickness. For materials having out-of-plane magnetisation created by ordered alloys in a multilayer structure (these are discussed in greater detail below) the anisotropy can be increased by increasing the number of repeat layers in the multilayer structure or by changing the relative thicknesses of the layers within the multilayer structure. This latter approach can have a profound impact on the anisotropy for a relatively small amount of sublayer thickness change.
Changing the thickness can also affect the coupling strength J* and thus cause the exchange interaction field J* to alternate high-low by changing the thickness instead of the anisotropy field being made to alternate high-low. As is discussed below, for exchange interaction coupled materials, increasing the layer thickness causes dilution of the interface coupling across a larger magnetic layer volume.
A further consideration for increasing layer thickness is that magnetostatic coupling strength increases with layer thickness. Thus, as exchange coupling weakens with increased layer thickness, the magnetostatic coupling becomes stronger. Thus layer thickness provides a balance to control the dominant coupling effect. In a system where magnetostatic coupling is dominant, varying the thickness has the opposite effect to that in an exchange interaction coupled system, i.e. increased thickness increased the coupling strength and decreased thickness weakens the coupling strength.
In many materials, an alteration in thickness will have some effect on both the anisotropy and the coupling. In some materials, the majority of the impact is on the anisotropy and in some materials the majority of the impact is on the coupling, and in some materials a balance of both occurs.
An additional parameter to consider is J, which is the property of the interface between a magnetic layer and a non-magnetic spacer layer (further discussion of spacer layers is provided below) in an indirect exchange coupling materials system (such as RKKY coupling). The consideration of this parameter provides greater explanation of some of the properties outlines above. J changes in an oscillatory fashion with the thickness of the non-magnetic layer. Its units are areal energy density. It is related to J* in that J* is J converted into an equivalent magnetic field. It means that if the entire magnetic layer acts as one (i.e. z-invariant in its response) then it is the equivalent magnetic field that would have to be applied to the entire magnetic layer to get the same response as is caused by the interface. Mathematically it is related to J by J*=J/(Ms t). It's reciprocal in t because J only acts on the interface atomic layer—as the magnetic layer gets thicker the effect of J is increasingly diluted across the full thickness of the magnetic layer and therefore looks like an increasingly weak magnetic field. If the magnetic layers are all the same thickness then the absolute difference between J and J* is, at least conceptually, of little concern since they're directly proportional. But if the magnetic layer thicknesses change, then J* and J are no longer equivalent terms.
A simple form of such a structure where the anisotropy Hu is varied is illustrated in
It will be appreciated that the number of antiparallel coupled layers making up the downslope of the managed anisotropy gradient can be extended to be as long as operational and materials considerations allow. Both operational and materials aspects of the implementation will be discussed in greater detail below.
In addition, it is possible to extend the length of the reset region to include medium anisotropy layers instead of having the sharp jump from lowest to highest anisotropy in one layer. Such an arrangement is illustrated in
Thus it will now be understood how magnetic layers of varying anisotropies can be ordered and coupled in order to provide a field drive device having a managed profile of resulting net switching field so as to allow an indefinite number of layers to be present within the structure. Such a structure can hold and have propagated therethrough a number of solitons at any one time and such a plurality of solitons within the structure can be used to encode data in order that the structure can be used as a data store, or memory element.
At
A further discussion of the number of layers moved by a soliton per half cycle of applied field is presented below.
Thus it can be seen that a soliton can be reliably propagated along the propagation direction of a layered structure having a managed profile of resulting net switching field created by varying the anisotropy of successive layers.
Now, with reference to
a to 16e illustrate an example of soliton propagation along the stack of
At
A further discussion of the number of layers moved by a soliton per half cycle of applied field is presented below. As can be seen from these figures, a soliton may behave as a composite body under propagation and thus doesn't necessarily reach a distinct position at every point within the cycle.
Thus it can be seen that a soliton can be reliably propagated along the propagation direction of a layered structure having a managed profile of resulting net switching field created by varying the coupling strength of successive layers.
Now, with reference to
In
Thus there have now been described a number of physical arrangements for creating a layered structure of successive magnetic layers in which the magnitude of the layer anisotropy, layer thickness or inter-layer coupling is controlled to provide a propagation direction along the structure and along which a soliton can be reliably and synchronously propagated under the influence of an applied field acting along the propagation direction. In addition, the techniques described above can be combined within a single structure. Thus a device may use a combination of varied anisotropy and varied thickness, a combination of varied anisotropy and varied coupling strength, a combination or varied thickness and varied coupling strength, or a combination of all three.
Two further considerations to be looked at are the methods by which data can be encoded onto the structure and the minimum soliton spacing (which affects the maximum data density within the structure).
The minimum soliton spacing is a spacing that enables the solitons to co-exist near one-another without a danger of the solitons either combining or repulsing one-another. Combining of solitons would result in data loss and solitons repulsing one another could affect the reliability and synchronicity of propagation and thus could result in a soliton failing to propagate when driven by the external field or propagating without being driven by the external field. In practice, it is seen that a minimum spacing (period) of three logical layers is required. The value of three logical layers arises as two logical layers are inherently required to hold the soliton and the third layer provides space for the solitons to move slightly different points on the half-cycle of applied field without collision. A distinction is made herein between logical layers and physical layers as all physical layers of the reset region count as one logical layer as a soliton moves the whole way along the reset region on a single half-cycle or pulse of applied field.
Using the example of
Using the Example of
An example of soliton propagation with high density soliton presence is shown in
The propagation continues to cycle 2.5 (
Thus the propagation process as well as the variance in physical layer separations during different propagation cycles due to the impact of the parallel-couple layer pairs can be seen,
If one considers a structure having eight antiparallel-coupled layer pairs between each reset region and the reset region comprises a single parallel-coupled pair, then the three logical layers become, on average over the structure, 3⅓ physical layers. The fractional layer again appears because some up to three solitons will fit on the nine logical layer pairs (which are made up of 10 physical layers) and thus the maximum soliton density to give a three logical layer spacing is 10/3 layers per soliton on average.
Thus it can be seen that by extending the length of each downslope region of the managed anisotropy gradient while keeping a minimum reset region length, the number of layers will asymptotically approach three physical layers per soliton. The selection of the number of layers in the downslope region can depend on a number of factors, including materials and fabrication considerations and thus it may be appropriate in some implementations to accept a maximum density of 9 physical layers, 6 physical layers, 4 physical layers or just under 4 physical layers rather than extending the downslope length to further reduce the maximum soliton density. It should be noted that where the structure has a number of layers which is not an exact multiple of the maximum soliton density, the structure is still operable and the maximum number of solitons will be the integer part of the total number of layers divided by the maximum soliton density. Thus if the structure has a number of layers that is an exact multiple of the maximum soliton density, then the result of that same calculation will be an integer value.
Within each stack, data can be encoded according to one of a number of possible schemes.
Two specific example encoding schemes are illustrated with reference to
Another suitable encoding scheme would be to use an exact copy of existing hard disc coding schemes. Thus a 1 to −1 order parameter transition in the stack can be taken as equivalent to head to head in hard disk encoding and a −1 to 1 order parameter transition in the stack can be taken as equivalent to tail to tail in hard disk encoding (or vice versa). By taking such an encoding approach, existing hard disk drive turbo codes can be recycled for use in a solid state magnetic data store.
Another suitable example of an encoding scheme is one utilising phase shift keying. This example has application in a situation where neighbouring stacks of a device are close enough that interactions between adjacent stacks are a possible source of erroneous behaviour. In this approach, the mark space ratio is controlled and the overall structure of soliton presence or absence between neighbouring stacks is approximately controlled. In one specific example, the encoding used could utilise a soliton at every fourth position (position 1 of every group of four positions) and an encode data values by inserting a soliton at position 2 for data value one or position 3 for the data value zero (or vice versa). In this example, position 4 would always be empty of a soliton Such an encoding example provides that half of the possible soliton positions have a soliton present and thus smoothes the presence or absence of solitons in the event of a large number of sequential data bits of the same value.
Thus there have now been described a number of possible field drive data storage structures utilising soliton holding layered structures and data encoding schemes by which solitons within the layered structure can encode data for storage and later retrieval.
In the following, a description will be provided of examples illustrating how the layered structures for a propagation field driven device can be implemented to have the couplings, thicknesses and anisotropies set out above.
Although some examples vary from the following structure, the basic structural elements which serve to illustrate the present disclosure are that the various magnetic layers discussed above are separated by a non-magnetic spacer layer. As mentioned above, each layer has an easy axis of anisotropy along which the magnetisation direction of the layer will lie. In general, the easy axes of anisotropy of successive layers are substantially parallel. This, in combination with the non-magnetic spacers, facilitates the inter-layer coupling of the magnetic layers to have either parallel or antiparallel alignment. As is made clear in the following description, the coupling direction between layers and the anisotropy of each layer (i.e. the tendency for the magnetisation direction of each layer to resist reversal) can be controlled by the materials and dimensions of the various layers.
In some examples, the magnetic layers are configured such that the dominant effect that controls the inter-layer coupling is dipolar field coupling (magnetostatic interactions) and in other examples the magnetic layers are configured such that the dominant effect that controls the inter-layer coupling is RKKY (Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida) exchange interactions. In general, and as mentioned above, the main factor in controlling which coupling phenomenon is dominant is the dimensions of the disks as RKKY coupling tends to be strongest for small spacer thickness and dipolar coupling tends to be strongest for large magnetic layer thickness. Thus, where it is appropriate to use a fabrication technique offering minimum layer thickness in order to improve volumetric density of soliton and thus data storage, a fabrication based on RKKY coupling may be most appropriate. Where RKKY suitable materials are not deployable or not available and/or where volumetric density is of lower concern, then fabrication based upon dipolar coupling may be appropriate.
RKKY coupling uses an RKKY compatible material as a spacer layer between magnetic discs. The coupling strength across a given thickness of a given spacer layer material can vary greatly depending upon the exact combination of magnetic and spacer materials and upon the fabrication techniques used to create the structure. Thus although some dimensional examples are given herein, the skilled person will understand that a given implementation may require verification and adjustment in order to achieve required anisotropy and coupling strengths. For example, a dimensional and materials combination may be determined by calculation, after which that combination is fabricated and tested to determine the actual strengths such that an iterative process of adjustment of a dimension or material may be made in order to create a further test sample. Such an iterative process to check actual properties against calculated properties may thus form a part of the design and fabrication process for any given implementation.
The layered structure may typically be considered as a stack of magnetic elements (interspersed with non-magnetic spacers as appropriate). As will be discussed further below, a number of manufacturing techniques may be applied to create such a structure. Each layer may be circular or approximately circular (non-circular shapes such as ellipses can be used to provide shape anisotropy to govern easy axis direction) such that each structure may take the form of a cylindrical or almost cylindrical stack of discs. As will be appreciated, the anisotropy of each layer is related to the strength of magnetic field required to cause the magnetisation direction to change from one direction along the easy axis of anisotropy to the other direction along that axis.
The easy axis of anisotropy in each magnetic layer can be provided in a number of ways. Suitable examples include shape anisotropy, magnetocrystalline anisotropy or stress anisotropy. Stress anisotropy is where placing a material under tension or compression can alter the magnetic properties of the material. For example if a stack of layers having no defined easy axis of anisotropy has a compressive force applied along the length of one side of the stack, then easy axes of anisotropy would be expected to appear in substantially the same direction in each layer.
In the example of shape anisotropy, the stack of disks would be made to have a non-circular cross section (typically an ellipse). Using an ellipse shape will generate a uniaxial anisotropy with easy axis directed along the long axis of the ellipse. The strength of the anisotropy field is a function of the thickness of the magnetic layers and the extent of the ellipticity (i.e. how far removed the disk is from a circle). Examples of suitable methods of creating a structure using such an approach is epitaxial growth and other thin film deposition methods such as chemical or physical deposition techniques including electro deposition and physical vapour deposition.
Magnetocrystalline anisotropy includes two sub-options for implementation. The first is to choose a material having magnetic layers which possesses an intrinsic anisotropy. Examples of suitable methods of creating a structure using such an approach is epitaxial growth and other thin film deposition methods such as chemical or physical deposition techniques including electro deposition and physical vapour deposition. The second option is to impose anisotropy on the material by growing it in the presence of a strong magnetic field or at an oblique deposition angle. These approaches are described in the context of sputter deposition (a form of physical vapour deposition) by Gentils, A, Chapman, J N, Xiong, G, et al, Variation of domain-wall structures and magnetization ripple spectra in permalloy films with controlled uniaxial anisotropy, J APPL PHYS, 2005, Vol: 98, ISSN: 0021-8979 (deposition in the presence of a strong magnetic field) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,818,961 (deposition from an oblique deposition angle).
As magnetocrystalline anisotropy depends on the material properties of the materials making up the layers whereas shape anisotropy depends on the overall dimension of the layer, it is possible that a given magnetic layer could have its overall anisotropy controlled by a combination of magnetocrystalline and shape anisotropy effects.
In order to control the coupling direction (i.e. parallel or antiparallel) between the layers, a number of options are available. In an example where the magnetic layers can be separated by metallic non-magnetic spacer layers (e.g. ruthenium, copper or chromium) to provide RKKY coupling as the dominant coupling force between magnetic layers, one approach for controlling the coupling direction is to select the thickness of the spacer between the antiparallel coupled layer pairs to correspond to an “antiferromagnetic peak” of the oscillatory RKKY coupling decay curve and to select the spacer thickness for the parallel-coupled layer pairs to correspond to a “ferromagnetic peak” of the oscillatory RKKY coupling decay curve. Further information relating to the oscillatory decay curve for RKKY coupling is given in RKKY Ultrathin Magnetic Structures 2—ISBN-3-540-57687-8/ISBN-0-387-57687-8, Editors J. A. C. Bland and B. Heinrich. Chapter 2: Magnetic coupling and magnetoresistance.
Another approach for an RKKY coupled structure is to use for the antiparallel-coupled layer pairs, as above, a metallic non-magnetic spacer (e.g. Ru, Cu or Cr) with a thickness selected to correspond to an “antiferromagnetic peak” of the oscillatory RKKY coupling decay curve, and to use for the parallel-coupled layer pairs an insulator (or semiconductor e.g. Si or Ge) for the spacer as such materials lead to a parallel coupling. Further information relating to the RKKY behaviour of insulators and semiconductors is given in RKKY Ultrathin Magnetic Structures 2—ISBN-3-540-57687-8/ISBN-0-387-57687-8, Editors J. A. C. Bland and B. Heinrich. Chapter 2: Magneticcoupling and magnetoresistance.
Another approach is to place the two layers that are to be parallel-coupled in direct contact with each other, allowing direct exchange coupling (as opposed to the indirect exchange coupling of RKKY). In this approach, the magnetic layer thickness will be greater than the domain wall width of that material so that the strength of the direct exchange coupling does not cause the two layers to lock together magnetically and behave as a single magnetic layer. Further consideration of this issue of layer thickness is presented in US2010/0062286 A1 (Suess, D.).
Where a structure is constructed to use dipolar coupling as the dominant coupling mechanism, the parallel coupling is typically achieved by way of direct exchange coupling as mentioned above. The antiparallel coupling is typically achieved by using a non-magnetic spacer layer. The paper by Carignan et al, Journal of Applied Physics 102, 023905 (2007); doi:10.1063/1.2756522 provides some information relating to appropriate materials choices and the considerations for determining the dipolar interaction.
In order to control the anisotropies of the respective magnetic layers, a number of options are available. For example, it is possible to select a different material for each magnetic disc according to the required anisotropy. Thus, in the example of a structure having successive high, medium and low anisotropy layers, the high anisotropy layer could be Co, the medium anisotropy layer could be CoFe and the low anisotropy layer could be permalloy or CoFeB.
Another approach, which could be used alone or mixed with the different materials approach above, is to alter the later thicknesses of the magnetic layers. In general, thicker layers tend to have higher anisotropies and so a low anisotropy layer could be thinner than a medium anisotropy layer which in turn is thinner than a high anisotropy layer. This approach is may be particularly appropriate if the easy axis of anisotropy of each magnetic layer is caused by shape anisotropy through use of an elliptical shape of each magnetic layer.
Another approach is to use perpendicularly magnetised materials made from interdigitated layers of, for example, Co—Pt, Co—Pd or Co—Ni. For such materials, the anisotropy is related to the number of repeat layers and thus the number of repeat layers making up each magnetic layer of the structure can be tailored according to the desired anisotropy. The anisotropy is also related to the relative thickness of the magnetic and non-magnetic repeat layers and thus the thickness of the CO layer, for example, can be reduced or increased in order to increase or reduce the anisotropy. The anisotropy is also related to the non-magnetic material in the ordered alloy and thus the anisotropy can be reduced by, for example, substituting Co—Pd for Co—Pt. Examples of considerations relevant to changing the anisotropy of a Co—Pd material by changing the cobalt layer thickness are given in: P. F. Carcia, A. D. Meinhaldt, A. Suna, Applied Physics Letter 47, 178 (1985). Examples of materials based upon Co—Pd and Co—Pd—Co—Ni layers are given in: Hellwig et al, Applied Physics Letter 95, 232505 (2009). Examples of considerations relevant to varying anisotropy by changing the cobalt layer thickness are given in: Lin et al, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 93, 194 (1991). Examples of CoFeB (alloy) with MgO interface are given in: Ikeda et al, Nature Materials 9, 721 (2010). This last example of a perpendicularly magnetised material uses materials that have already been well developed for in-plane use. In addition, this material provides lower anisotropy than Co—Pd or Co—Pt and thus could provide a suitable material choice for the lowest anisotropy layers of a given structure. Also, with reference to the discussion of reading and writing interfaces below, the MgO interface could be used to form reading and/or writing elements and a different interface could be substituted for use within the body of the layered structure. Examples of the use of L10 ordered (Co,Fe)—Pt alloys as perpendicular materials for data storage are given in: IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 44, 2573 (2008).
In
In
In
The use of exchange spring media in the form of a graded anisotropy layer is likely to result in a reduced data storage density compared to the thin film techniques discussed above as the graded anisotropy layer will have a size as thick as or thicker than one domain wall width in that material (usually around 10-50 nm). Thus the repeat period will end up being greater than if distinct layers with explicit ferromagnetic coupling between them were to be used. However despite this reduction in density compared to other approaches, this particular approach may be appropriate for a manufacture based upon electrodeposition into templating pores. Such a templated deposition approach provides a relatively fast and inexpensive approach for formation of very high aspect ratio structures. However, when using this construction technique, it is expected that the inter-layer interface quality within the created structure would not be clean enough to reliably use RKKY coupling, such that dipolar coupling (which is always anti-parallel between layers of in-plane magnetised material) would typically be the dominant coupling effect. Since the layer thickness of a dipolar coupled system would be expected to be of the order of tens of nm per layer, there would be space to use a graded anisotropy layer. Under some circumstances, this in fact might be easier to fabricate under electrodeposition than two distinct ferromagnetic materials of different anisotropy. Thus, in the example of fabrication using electrodeposition into templating pores (regardless of whether the magnetic layers are graded anisotropy layers or distinct anisotropy layers), the anti-parallel exchange coupling layer separating the magnetic layers would not be an RKKY coupler like Ruthenium, but rather any non-magnetic spacer whose only job is to keep the layers apart, allowing them to couple anti-parallel through dipolar interactions. An example of a suitable spacer material is Cu. Some general background on the technology of creating electrodeposited nanowires can be found in Carignan et al, Journal of Applied Physics 102, 023905 (2007); doi:10.1063/1.2756522.
Thus there have been described a number of approaches and techniques for producing a field driven magnetic thin film device capable of maintaining therein and having propagated therethrough one or more stable transitions in an order parameter describing the alignment of magnetic moments within the layers of the structure. Such devices can be used to store data encoded into the order parameter transition sequences or presences.
As noted above, in all construction approaches, there will be a relationship between the relative strength of the coupling field (which can be thought of as the coupling strength between adjacent magnetic layers or as the average interaction field in one magnetic layer due the presence of the neighbouring magnetic layer, in any case expressed as a magnetic field) J* (or the coupling areal energy density J) and the anisotropy field (anisotropy field strength of each magnetic disk) Hu. Again, discussions relating to J* are based upon the magnitude of J*. Where adjacent layers are parallel-coupled J* will be positive and where adjacent layers are anti-parallel coupled, the actual value of J* will be negative.
In general, a large J* may be appropriate as large J* leads to a high nucleation field strength. By having a high nucleation field strength the operating margin for the applied field strength for propagation is increased, as the propagation field in most cases needs to be at a level below that which will cause spontaneous soliton nucleation at an uncontrolled position in the structure. However, if the value of J* becomes too large, the soliton will stop being sharp or abrupt and will spread itself across several layers. This will have the effect of reducing the energy barrier for propagation ΔEp (hence reducing data stability) and/or of reducing the minimum soliton spacing that can store data stably for a given anisotropy. Modelling of the properties suggests that soliton broadening begins when J*˜Hu/2. Therefore in some implementations it may be appropriate to control the relationship between J* and Hu such that want J* is around Hu/2 or slightly less.
In general, a large Hu may be appropriate since the energy barrier separating stable positions of the soliton scales linearly with Hu. Increased Hu therefore leads to increased data stability and/or the ability to reduce the volume of each data storage element without the risk of thermal instability setting in. However, where solitons need to be propagated along the structure, it may be appropriate to bear in mind that the minimum propagation field is typically around Hu/2. Therefore if Hu is too high, the applied field strength required for propagation may be of such magnitude that the will arrangement for generating the applied field needed to propagate the solitons would be large in size or power consumption, which may be inappropriate for some implementations. Furthermore, similar considerations also apply to the filed strengths relating to injection of solitons into the stack.
Applying the above mentioned considerations of J* and Hu to the examples above, there now follow some examples of materials properties and illustrations of the behaviours that these provide in a layered structure. Referring first to the Example of
Examples of the operating margin and stability for a period-2 structure such as that of
Thus it is seen that the values of either or both of the anisotropies can be altered, as can the coupling strength and as can the physical dimensions of the layers. For example, Hu1 can lie in the range of around 20 to 200 Oe, Hu2 (smaller than Hu1) can lie in the range of around zero to 190 Oe. It is believed that in some examples a separation of around 10 Oe or more may be appropriate to facilitate reliable operation. The coupling strength can lie in the range of around 10 to 200 Oe. Propagation field strengths can lie in the range of around 10 to 200 Oe. In the propagation example of
Referring now to the example of
Examples of the operating margin and stability for a period-3 structure such as that of
Thus it is seen that the values of any or all of the couplings can be altered, as can the layer anisotropy and as can the physical dimensions of the layers. For example, J1* can lie in the range of around −20 to −200 Oe, J2* (smaller than J1*) can lie in the range of around +/−10 to +/−190 Oe, and J3* can lie in the range of around +20 to +200 Oe. It is believed that in some examples a separation of around 10 Oe or more may be appropriate to facilitate reliable operation. The anisotropy can lie in the range of around 10 to 200 Oe. Propagation field strengths can lie in the range of around 10 to 200 Oe. In the propagation example of
Examples of the operating margin and stability for a period-3 structure such as that of
In addition, the values of either or both of the thicknesses can be altered, as can the coupling strength and as can the anisotropies of the layers. For example, t1 can lie in the range of around 0.5 to around 10 nm and t2 (larger than t1) can lie in the range of around 0.6 to around 11 nm. Hu can lie in the range of around 10 to 200 Oe. It is believed that in some examples a separation of around 10 Oe or more may be appropriate to facilitate reliable operation. The coupling strength can lie in the range of around 10 to 200 Oe. Propagation field strengths can lie in the range of around 10 to 200 Oe. Figures outside these ranges are also possible.
Referring now to the example of
Referring now to the example of
As mentioned above, actual materials and dimensions to achieve a given set of field strengths may vary considerably depending on not just the materials chose but also the fabrication technique. Thus although example materials and dimensions are given in the above examples, it will be appreciated that the teaching of the present disclosure extends beyond those examples of particular values to encompass operable structures consistent with the principles and spirit of the present disclosure.
Another example of an approach to implement a structure having a managed profile of resulting net switching field is illustrated with respect to
An example structure, as illustrated in
To illustrate the operation of this example, an assumption is made that the easy-axis switching of the magnetic layers exhibits Brown's Paradox, i.e. the coercivity Hc is less than the anisotropy Hu. This assumption makes the system Ising-like, i.e. the magnetisation orientation is at all times close to the easy axis and phenomena such as spin-flop do not occur. It should be noted that this assumption is not necessary for a functioning device, rather the assumption is made to enable the concept to be illustrated by way of simple algebra. If the easy-axis switching of the magnetic layers does not exhibit Brown's Paradox, the same system behaviour occurs and the mathematic representations of the system is of increased complexity.
In the present example, both J1 and J2 are negative, i.e. all of the layers are coupled such that antiparallel alignment of layers is energetically preferred.
Due to the presence of the frustration, both layers C and D experience a reduced local exchange field since the presence of the frustration causes the exchange fields from their nearest neighbours act in opposite directions.
As will be seen from the following, the frustration is again a topological soliton as the frustration is mobile (by reversing the magnetisation of a frustrated disk); localised (away from the frustration each disk is in a stable, low-energy state); and persistent (to remove the frustration, half of the disks in the stack would have to be reversed, equivalent to moving the frustration all the way to one end of the stack and allowing it to fall out of the end). It is a kink soliton as the order parameter changes in passing through the soliton.
For upward (in the orientation shown in
Once Layer C has switched, the soliton will lie between layer B and layer C. So as to maintain the propagation direction, on the next half cycle of applied field layer B switches before layer C and so layer C will have B lower net switching field than layer C, i.e.
There is no need to then consider the movement of the soliton from layers B & C to layers A & B since this has the identical conditions as moving from layers C & D to layers B & C, i.e. once equations [1] and [2] are satisfied then the soliton will propagate unidirectionally up the entire repeated layer structure.
Considering now the case where Hc1=Hc2, a Taylor expansion of [1] and [2] can be made to express these two requirements as a single equation:
where t0 is the average magnetic layer thickness and Δt is the difference in thickness between layers, i.e the layer thicknesses alternate between t0−Δt/2 and t0+Δt/2.
Typical values that can be achieved in real material systems are: t1=0.6 nm, t2=0.75 nm; J1=−800 Oe-nm (antiparallel); J2=−400 Oe-nm (antiparallel); Hc1=Hc2=240 Oe. These values would be achieved using Co60Fe20B20 for the magnetic layers and ruthenium as the RKKY coupling layer and would result in an out-of-plane anisotropy easy axis. J can be tuned by changing the thickness of the Ru layer according to the experimental values shown in
As an example,
For this material system, Hc is found to be largely independent of the magnetic layer thickness (at least across the range of thicknesses considered here) and so the approximation used to arrive at equation [3] is valid. This is shown in the experimental data shown in
Thus there have now been described a number of example structures having different physical dimensional and materials properties which are all operable to implement a managed profile of resulting net switching field to enable directional propagation of solitons therethrough as well as approaches for operating such structures to carry data.
At one end of each stack there is a soliton injector device which converts electrical signals from the CMOS logic of the chip into a stream of solitons representing a serial data stream that is to be stored in the stack. At the other end of the stack there is a detector device which is used during data retrieval to convert the magnetic state at the end of the stack back into electrical pulses. An external applied field generator can be operated to apply a magnetic field which acts along the length each stack and which can therefore drive solitons along each stack.
In some examples, a pair of stacks can be linked such that anything read from one stack is automatically reinserted into the other stack. This arrangement provides for a pair of stacks to be operated as a single memory element. This can be achieved by electronically linking the read/write circuitry for the two stacks such that as solitons are propagated out of one stack in order to read the data encoded therein, the same data is rewritten into the other stack by insertion of solitons encoding the same data. An alternative arrangement to achieve the same effect has the output of a stack linked to its own input so that data is automatically rewritten into the stack as it is read from the output.
The data storage device can be implemented with either a global field generator or with local field generators for individual ones or groups of stacks. Where a field is generated which affects more than one stack, any use of the field to propagate solitons up or down those stacks will affect all of the driven stacks at once, leading to parallel propagation of solitons in the affected stacks.
For data read and write the data can be stored to each individual stack at a rate based upon the frequency of oscillation of the magnetic field. The total data rate of a data storage device incorporating multiple stacks can be further increased by reading/writing in parallel to multiple stacks. Such parallel writing (and associated reading) can be effected by bulk propagation of a number of stacks using a common propagation drive. The common propagation drive can include feeding the same drive signal to multiple field generators and/or use of a large field generator that affects multiple stacks at one time.
For generation of the external propagation field, a number of options can be utilised. For a small stack on a conventional bit-line/word-line matrix, the applied field can be applied using low magnitude dephased pulses on these lines. For such arrangements, and for arrangements where this is not technically possible due to the design of the bit-lines and word-lines or the size of the stack, other approaches can be considered.
One efficient way to generate the oscillating magnetic field that propagates solitons through the layered structure is by use of a strip line for structures made from in-plane magnetised materials and by use of a planar coil (for example having approximately 1 turn) for structures made from out of plane magnetised materials. In either case, the strip line or coil would typically be driven by passing a sinusoidal signal or a pulsed signal therethrough.
For in-plane magnetised materials where a strip line is used to generate the propagation field, the strip line would typically be located directly above or below the stacks to be affected by the field generated thereby. In some examples, the strip line could be clad with a magnetic material in order to increase the strength of the emitted field. Details relating to such cladding may be found in WO2003/043020.
For out-of-plane magnetised materials, the planar coil may typically be located to the side of the stacks to be affected by the field generated thereby. The coil could be placed to the side and above or below the stacks. It is believed that the driving effect of the field from the planar coil is provided when there is an angle between the coil and the location at which the field is to act. In some examples, there may be provided a number of stacks within the perimeter of a single coil, all of which stacks would then be propagated together by the field generated by the coil. Thus there have now been described a number of examples for generation of an oscillating magnetic field acting across the layers of a layered structure in order to drive the propagation of solitons through the layered structure.
Thus a number of examples of a device for field driven propagation of solitons through a layered structure has been provided.
As mentioned above, a data storage device can store data bits by injecting one or more solitons into the layered structure and propagating them along the layered structure. The soliton(s) would then remain in the layered structure until required, at which point it would be propagated through to the other end of the layered structure and detected as it leaves (a First In First Out serial shift register).
Thus for data storage purposes it may be necessary to inject controllably at one end of the layered structure a sequence of solitons representing the data bits to be stored. Suitable coding mechanisms that could be used have been discussed above. In the present examples, it is assumed to be most likely that the data sequence for storage will begin in electrical form, and that this is then converted to magnetic form by some injector device at one end of the layered structure. An example of a suitable injector device will now be discussed with reference to
In the described arrangements using a tunnel barrier injection system, the soliton detection arrangement is omitted for simplicity of understanding. A separate detection arrangement as discussed below can be provided at the other end of the layered structure.
An example reader structure based upon a Tunnel Magneto Resistance (TMR) structure will now be described. Such a structure provides a high usable magnitude of the read-out signal, thus enabling a high density arrangement of stacks on the circuit which supplies the data to the layered structures (such as CMOS circuit).
In this example the top of the layered structure is isolated from a pinned ferromagnetic layer by a tunnel barrier (e.g. a thin magnesium oxide layer, see, for example, S. S. P. Parkin et al. “Giant tunnelling magnetoresistance at room temperature with MgO (100) tunnel barriers” Nature Materials 3, 862-867 (2004) doi:10.1038/nmat1256) and an electrical current is passed between the top magnetic layer of the layered structure and the pinned ferromagnetic layer via the tunnel barrier. The TMR effect gives a very strong dependence of resistance on the relative orientation of the magnetisation in the two magnetic layers, allowing the magnetic state of the top of the layered structure to be easily detected.
Assuming that the write mechanism also uses a current passing through the relevant layers of the stack, it may be appropriate to pass the current through the entire length of the stack so that both write and read processes can be current based and such that no extra contact layers need be inserted. If using a current passed through the entire stack in order to perform writing and reading, it may be appropriate to perform write and read operations at a slightly different part of the magnetic field cycle in order to separate the current conditions for writing from the current conditions for reading.
Where an approach using an electrical current passing through the whole stack is used, even though many layers of the layered structure are involved in the passage of the electrical current, the electrical resistance is dominated by the tunnel barrier and the spin-dependence of the resistance of the layered structure is dominated by the relative orientation of the magnetisation on either side of the tunnel barrier. Thus the ability to read is not compromised by the large number of soliton holding layers within the structure.
In the described arrangements using a TMR detection system, the soliton injection arrangement is omitted for simplicity of understanding. A separate injection arrangement as discussed above or below can be provided at the other end of the layered structure.
Thus the use of a tunnel barrier based approach to write solitons into and/or read solitons from a layered structure has now been described. In some examples, tunnel barrier based approaches can be used for both reading and detection elements.
Another approach for an injector is to use a spin valve at the writing end of the layered structure. The spin valve consists of a magnetic layer separated from “first” magnetic layer of the layered structure by a non-magnetic metal layer. The spin valve when operating in a write context uses spin momentum transfer switching in which a current is passed through the spin valve leading to the reversal of the magnetically softer layer, as described in: Katine, J. A. et at Current-driven magnetization reversal and spin-wave excitations in Co/Cu/Co pillars. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3149-3152 (2000).
In the described arrangements using a spin valve write system, the soliton reading arrangement is omitted for simplicity of understanding. A separate reading arrangement as discussed above or below can be provided at the other end of the layered structure.
For a soliton detection element, a spin valve arrangement would be provided at the opposite end of the stack to a writing arrangement. The layer structure of such a reading element could be similar to or the same as that used for writing but the read would be based upon exploiting the giant magnetoresistance effect. The electrical resistance of the spin valve varies according to the alignment of the magnetic layers. The magnetic layers align “up” or “down” depending on an external magnetic field. One of the magnetic layers has higher anisotropy than the other such that the layers switch magnetisation direction at differing applied field strengths. As the external magnetic filed sweeps across the valve, two distinct states can exist, one with the magnetisations of the layers parallel, and one with the magnetisations of the layers antiparallel. As one of the magnetic layers of the spin valve is one of the layers of the soliton maintaining structure, the spin valve can be controlled by application of electrical current through the layers of the spin valve (i.e. along the longitudinal axis of the stack) to set the layer to become parallel or antiparallel aligned to the next magnetic layer up the stack in order to write or not write a soliton on any given field half-cycle or pulse. Thus the use of a spin valve to write solitons into a layered structure has now been described.
In the described arrangements using a spin valve read system, the soliton write arrangement is omitted for simplicity of understanding. A separate writing arrangement as discussed below can be provided at the other end of the layered structure. In some examples, spin valves can be used for both reading and detection elements.
In some examples, a write mechanism may be based upon MRAM technology rather than a spin valve. Thus field induced writing could be implemented by using a single MRAM layer or MRAM pair as a writing element. Other suitable writing mechanisms could include use of a current carrying strip line to pass current pulses through the strip line.
Thus mechanisms and example arrangements for introducing solitons into a layered structure with a managed profile of resulting net switching field have now been described. Also, mechanisms and example arrangements for reading solitons from such a structure have also been described.
Whether or not the writing element is based upon a spin valve or a tunnel barrier and whether or not the reading element is based upon a spin valve or a tunnel barrier, where both the write and read mechanisms are based upon electrical current techniques, an arrangement that can pass an electrical current through the whole stack can be used to control both reading and writing. Where current is provided at a first level, reading occurs, and where current is provided at a second level, writing occurs. As mentioned above, in such an example it may be appropriate to separate the read and write cycles slightly in time so as to provide signal separation to enable the read result to be detected and distinguished from the effects of the write on the current. Also, such separation may in some examples facilitate avoiding a write signal simultaneously causing an as yet unread magnetisation state at the read end from being written over if the write current causes the read element to also act as a write element.
As mentioned above, it is assumed that the basis structure for using a layered structure having solitons introduced thereinto for data storage purposes is as a First In First Out (FIFO) shift register (where reading occurs at the opposite end of the stack to writing). Other options include the pseudo-persistent storage approach mentioned above where two stacks are paired to provide the effect of a read/write element in the middle of the stack or the looped stack approach where the output of the stack is linked to the input of the same stack.
Thus a device can be provided in which data is stored by way of stable frustrations in an order parameter of the magnetisation directions of magnetic layers in a layered structure, which data can be propagated through the structure by a propagation field and which data can be written to and read from the structure by current driven electrical elements.
As will be understood from the foregoing, the layered magnetic structures of the present disclosure provide for reliable propagation of solitons in a known direction by providing an inherent propagation direction by way of the properties of the structure. Thus a uni-directional structure can be fabricated to enable a known propagation direction. This known directionality therefore imparts to the structure a non-symmetry of inversion in z (i.e. the longitudinal direction of the layered structure). That is, if a structure can be inverted lengthways and the same applied field in the original direction still causes propagation then there is likely to be significant uncertainty in the reliability of directional propagation. This is illustrated with reference to
The skilled reader will appreciate that although a lack of inversion symmetry provides for reliable unidirectional propagation, other conditions may also apply in order for unidirectional propagation to occur. For example, where it is desired to perform the “reset” illustrated with reference to
A general principle that may be appropriate to consider is that the structure typically requires at least three sequential elements in order to provide reliable unidirectional propagation. With this in mind the reason the Hu1,Hu2/J1,J2 version works is because the J lies between the two layers and is therefore not associated with just one of them. Thus the sequence of elements Hu1,J1,Hu2 is provided which allows the unidirectionality. An example of a system that doesn't provide such a sequence of at least three elements is Hu1,Hu2/t1, t2, since t1 and Hu1 are associated together and so only form 1 element.
Thus there have been provided some general guiding principles in relation to achieving reliable directionality for propagation of solitons.
It will be appreciated that although the layered structures shown in the examples set out above include only a small number of layers in the layered structure, this is for the purposes of making the figures clear and easily understandable, and, as discussed above, each stack may include a much larger number of layers, for example 100 to 100,000 or even more layers.
Thus a number of examples of layered structures with a managed profile of resulting net switching field enabling the writing of solitons thereinto and the reading of solitons therefrom have now been described. A large number of different data storage devices can be implemented using such structures and including any number of individual layered structures.
It will be appreciated that references to a stack or column refer to specific examples of a suitable layered structure and no particular orientation or aspect ratio of such a layered structure is implied by use of either the term stack or column. It will also be appreciated that reference herein to the “top” or “bottom” of elements such as the stack or column are references to the orientations shown in the Figures and that the devices and arrangements described herein may be inverted or tilted by any angle in any plane without affecting the operation thereof and thus the “top” and “bottom” can be considered as ends according to the particular orientation of the device at a given time.
Thus the presently described examples provide teaching of a layered structure that can be fabricated using materials that exhibit varying strengths of anisotropy, including materials that are magnetised out of plane, and/or epitaxially grown, and/or have shape anisotropy. Thus the individual layers can be small in area, which can provide in some implementations high density utilisation of surface area by allowing many stacks to be placed on a given area of read-write circuitry. Also, thin film layers can be utilised for some implementations, thus providing high volumetric density by increasing the number of solitons (and thus the quantity of data) that can be stored for a given structure height. Also, a linear or rotating propagation field can be used depending on the operational requirements of a particular implementation.
Thus, various arrangements of the present disclosure can provide a field driven thin film layered structure which will support a soliton that: can be propagated by linear oscillating fields as well as rotating fields; keeps the anisotropy direction constant throughout the stack, thus opening up the possibility of using shape anisotropy or epitaxial growth for the anisotropy; works with out of plane magnetised materials as well as in plane magnetised materials, thus opening up the possibility of obtaining very strong anisotropies even in very thin layers; and provides for synchronous propagation of solitons.
The skilled reader will appreciate that the various described arrangements for a column of coupled magnetic discs having a managed profile of resulting net switching field which can maintain an introduced soliton therein and have that soliton propagated therethrough by an externally applied magnetic field and have solitons written thereinto and read therefrom are examples which illustrate the concepts underlying the present disclosure. Various modifications, alterations and equivalents may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1020727.2 | Dec 2010 | GB | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/GB11/52407 | 12/6/2011 | WO | 00 | 8/20/2013 |
