Learning-Performance Evaluation of a Physical Reservoir Based on a Vortex Spin-Torque Oscillator with a Modified Free Layer

TL;DR

This paper evaluates a modified vortex spin-torque oscillator's ability to perform physical reservoir computing, demonstrating enhanced information processing capacity and lower power consumption through potential landscape engineering.

Contribution

It introduces a modified VSTO with an additional layer, analyzing its learning performance and identifying optimal operating regimes for low-power, high-capacity reservoir computing.

Findings

The m-VSTO achieves up to twice the IPC of conventional VSTO.

High STMC and IPC are attainable in low-current, low-field regimes.

Optimal performance occurs in stable regimes with long transients, not at the edge of chaos.

Abstract

In this study, we numerically evaluate the learning performance of a vortex spin-torque oscillator with a modified free layer, called a modified VSTO (m-VSTO), in which an additional layer (AL) of smaller radius is stacked on the free layer, for physical reservoir computing. The vortex-core dynamics are computed using the Thiele equation incorporating the potential deformation induced by the AL. We identify the edge of chaos from the maximal Lyapunov exponent and quantify the short-term memory capacity (STMC) as well as the information processing capacity (IPC) in a time-multiplexed reservoir scheme. We find that the m-VSTO exhibits finite STMC and IPC in a low-current and low-field regime below the threshold current of the conventional VSTO, and can achieve up to approximately twice the IPC with about one quarter of the power consumption. Furthermore, when the input pulse width is set comparable to or longer than the transient time, the parameter region with high STMC and IPC expands, and the optimal operating region is located not at the edge of chaos but in a stable regime with long transients. These results suggest that engineering the potential landscape and the driving conditions enables low-power spintronic physical reservoirs.