Spin-transfer switching and thermal stability in an FePt/Au/FePt nanopillar prepared by alternate monatomic layer deposition

TL;DR

This paper reports the fabrication of a CPP-GMR nanopillar with a 1-nm-thick FePt free layer exhibiting perpendicular anisotropy, demonstrating spin-transfer switching at room temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fabrication method using alternate monatomic layer deposition for FePt-based nanopillars with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

Findings

Successful spin-transfer switching at room temperature.

Fabrication of ultrathin FePt free layer with perpendicular anisotropy.

Demonstration of CPP-GMR nanopillars with ferromagnetic layers.

Abstract

We fabricated a current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) nanopillar with a 1-nm-thick FePt free layer having perpendicular anisotropy using the alternate monatomic layer deposition method. Nanopillars consisting of [Fe (1 monolayer (ML))/Pt (1 ML)]n (n: the number of the alternation period) ferromagnetic layers and an Au spacer layer showed spin-transfer induced switching at room temperature.