Lecture

Magnetic Memory Technologies

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Description

This lecture covers the evolution from traditional electronic memory to spintronics, focusing on Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) and its advantages over Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM). It explains the principles of spin transport, the role of non-magnetic spacers, magnetoresistance, and the construction of MRAM using magnetic tunnel junctions. The instructor discusses the reading-writing process in Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and the importance of spacer materials and crystal structures in spin junction performance. Additionally, the lecture delves into MRAM writing mechanisms using magnetic fields and spin-polarized currents, as well as real-space imaging of antiferromagnetism on the atomic scale. It concludes with insights on artificially constructed quantum magnets and bistability in atomic-scale antiferromagnets.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Computer engineering

Computer architecture: Embedded systems

Physics

Condensed matter physics: Phase transitions

Related concepts (32)

Spintronics

Spintronics (a portmanteau meaning spin transport electronics), also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. The field of spintronics concerns spin-charge coupling in metallic systems; the analogous effects in insulators fall into the field of multiferroics.

Tunnel magnetoresistance

Tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) is a magnetoresistive effect that occurs in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), which is a component consisting of two ferromagnets separated by a thin insulator. If the insulating layer is thin enough (typically a few nanometres), electrons can tunnel from one ferromagnet into the other. Since this process is forbidden in classical physics, the tunnel magnetoresistance is a strictly quantum mechanical phenomenon. Magnetic tunnel junctions are manufactured in thin film technology.

Random-access memory

Random-access memory (RAM; ræm) is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working data and machine code. A random-access memory device allows data items to be read or written in almost the same amount of time irrespective of the physical location of data inside the memory, in contrast with other direct-access data storage media (such as hard disks, CD-RWs, DVD-RWs and the older magnetic tapes and drum memory), where the time required to read and write data items varies significantly depending on their physical locations on the recording medium, due to mechanical limitations such as media rotation speeds and arm movement.

Semiconductor memory

Semiconductor memory is a digital electronic semiconductor device used for digital data storage, such as computer memory. It typically refers to devices in which data is stored within metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) memory cells on a silicon integrated circuit memory chip. There are numerous different types using different semiconductor technologies. The two main types of random-access memory (RAM) are static RAM (SRAM), which uses several transistors per memory cell, and dynamic RAM (DRAM), which uses a transistor and a MOS capacitor per cell.

Magnetism

Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, magnetism is one of two aspects of electromagnetism. The most familiar effects occur in ferromagnetic materials, which are strongly attracted by magnetic fields and can be magnetized to become permanent magnets, producing magnetic fields themselves.

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