Lower current-driven exchange switching threshold in noncollinear magnetic junctions under high spin injection

Abstract

Current-induced switching is considered in a magnetic junction. The junction includes pinned and free ferromagnetic layers which work in the regime of the high spin injection. It is shown that in such a regime the exchange magnetization reversal threshold can be lowered up to two times when the axes of the layers are noncollinear.

Switching magnetic junction by joint action of current pulse and magnetic field: Numerical simulation

“…Nowadays several ways have been proposed to lower the threshold current density, under which the initial configuration becomes unstable and switches to another one with different electric resistance. These are proper choice of the barrier layer material [2], using diluted magnetic semiconductors as the pinned and free layers of the magnetic junctions [3], using combination of the layer parameters corresponding to efficient spin injection from the pinned layer to the free one and "locking up" the injection at the interface between the free layer and the nonmagnetic layer closing the electric circuit [4], using a noncollinear initial configuration of the magnetic junction [5,6,7,8].…”