Thermal effects on the critical current of spin torque switching in spin valve nanopillars

Published

February 28, 2007

Author(s)

Michael Schneider, Matthew Pufall, William Rippard, Stephen E. Russek, Jordan A. Katine

Abstract

In spin valve nanopillars, temperature affects the spin torque reversal of the free magnetic layer. The authors compare values of zero temperature critical switching current I_c0 extrapolated from room temperature pulsed current switching measurements to those of quasistatic current sweeps at 5 K. The values extrapolated from the room temperature pulsed switching probability measurements always less than or equal to those of the low temperature quasistatic measurements. Further the room temperature device-to-device variations of the critical switching current are drastically reduced at low temperature, where I_c0 agrees with the theory. Finally, the authors find that I_c0 scales with the free layer volume, as expected.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

90

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

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Keywords

Current-induced magnetization reversal, Magnetic devices, Spin momentum transfer, Spin torque

Citation

Schneider, M. , Pufall, M. , Rippard, W. , Russek, S. and Katine, J. (2007), Thermal effects on the critical current of spin torque switching in spin valve nanopillars, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=32441 (Accessed October 11, 2025)