Switching field dependence on heating pulse duration in thermally assisted magnetic random access memories

The minimum applied field HSW required to reverse the magnetic moment of the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic storage layer of a thermally assisted magnetic random access memory (TA-MRAM) device during the application of a heating electric pulse is investigated as a function of pulse power PHP and duration δ. For the same power of the heating pulse PHP (or, equivalently, for the same temperature of the storage layer), HSW increases with decreasing heating time δ. This behavior is consistently interpreted by a thermally activated propagating domain-wall switching model, corroborated by a real-time study of switching. The increase of HSW with decreasing pulse width introduces a constraint for the minimum power consumption of a TA-MRAM where writing combines heating and magnetic field application.