Non-volatile magnetic random access memories such as spin-transfer torque (STT)-MRAM and next generation spin-orbit torque (SOT)-MRAM are emerging as key enabling low-power technologies, which are expected to spread over large markets from embedded memories to the Internet of Things. Concurrently, the development and performances of devices based on two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals heterostructures bring ultra-compact multilayer compounds with unprecedented material-engineering capabilities. Here, we first provide an overview of the current developments and challenges in the field, and then outline the opportunities which can arise by implementing 2D materials into spin-based memory technologies. We highlight the fundamental properties of atomically smooth interfaces, the reduced material intermixing, the crystal symmetries and the proximity effects as the key drivers for possible disruptive improvements for MRAM at advanced technology nodes.

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Articles you may be interested inRadial-spin-wave-mode-assisted vortex-core magnetization reversals Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 172413 (2012) Effect of the classical ampere field in micromagnetic computations of spin polarized current-driven magnetization processes

A wide variety of coupled harmonic oscillators exist in nature. Coupling between different oscillators allows for the possibility of mutual energy transfer between them and the information-signal propagation. Low-energy input signals and their transport with negligible energy loss are the key technological factors in the design of information-signal processing devices. Here, utilizing the concept of coupled oscillators, we experimentally demonstrated a robust new mechanism for energy transfer between spatially separated dipolar-coupled magnetic disks - stimulated vortex gyration. Direct experimental evidence was obtained by a state-of-the-art experimental time-resolved soft X-ray microscopy probe. The rate of energy transfer from one disk to the other was deduced from the two normal modes' frequency splitting caused by dipolar interaction. This mechanism provides the advantages of tunable energy transfer rates, low-power input signals and negligible energy loss in the case of negligible intrinsic damping. Coupled vortex-state disks might be implemented in applications for information-signal processing.

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