Exploiting Locally Imposed Anisotropies in (Ga,Mn)As: a Non-volatile Memory Device

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a non-volatile memory device using (Ga,Mn)As with locally imposed magnetic anisotropies, where resistance depends on magnetic field flow, enabling stable data storage.

Contribution

It introduces a novel memory device leveraging local magnetic anisotropy control in (Ga,Mn)As, showing practical application of lithography techniques.

Findings

Resistance varies with magnetic field line flow

Device retains state without power

Magnetic anisotropy can be locally controlled

Abstract

Progress in (Ga,Mn)As lithography has recently allowed us to realize structures where unique magnetic anisotropy properties can be imposed locally in various regions of a given device. We make use of this technology to fabricate a device in which we study transport through a constriction separating two regions whose magnetization direction differs by 90 degrees. We find that the resistance of the constriction depends on the flow of the magnetic field lines in the constriction region and demonstrate that such a structure constitutes a non-volatile memory device.