Electrically controlled Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording in Intercalated 2D Magnets

TL;DR

This paper introduces an all-electronic heat-assisted magnetic recording method using intercalated 2D magnets, enabling efficient data writing through Joule heating and electronic readout, potentially advancing magnetic storage technology.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel electronic heat-assisted magnetic recording technique using intercalated 2D magnets, eliminating the need for laser-based heating.

Findings

Joule heating from current pulses can raise the 2D magnet above its Curie temperature.

A small magnetic field (~2mT) suffices for data writing during heating.

The approach enables electronic readout via the anomalous Hall effect.

Abstract

The ever-increasing demand for fast, reliable, and energy-efficient information storage continues to push magnetic memory technologies toward their fundamental limits. Conventional scaling strategies, which rely on reducing bit size, inevitably run into the "magnetic recording trilemma," where signal-to-noise ratio, thermal stability, and writability cannot all be optimized simultaneously. Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) has emerged as the leading solution, enabling high-density storage by transiently heating the medium during the write cycle. However, the reliance on laser optics and plasmonic transducers restricts HAMR primarily to hard-disk drives, limiting its integration with on-chip or embedded architectures. Here, we demonstrate an electronic variant of HAMR in which Joule heating from low-current density current pulses facilitates data writing, while the anomalous Hall effect provides electronic readout. Employing intercalated 2D magnet Ni$_{1/4}$TaSe$_2$, we show direct evidence that current pulses heat the material above its Curie temperature, during which a small magnetic field of ~2mT (100 times smaller than the coercive field) enables efficient data writing. The all-electronic approach combined with the 2D magnetic medium creates timely opportunities to revisit the energy-assisted magnetization recording, enabling new recording schemes that combine fundamental novelty with technological impact.