Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Contemporary memory technologies are increasingly constrained by the fundamental trilemma of storage capacity, access latency, and power consumption. Among the emerging technologies, spin-orbit torque magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM) shows promise to circumvent these challenges, owing to its fast switching dynamics and high endurance. However, the application of SOT-MRAM is hindered by the relatively low write and read efficiencies, resulting in a large bitcell area and an insufficient sensing margin. Meanwhile, the involvement of an ultrathin spin-source channel, typically within a few nanometers, imposes technological challenges for mass production. Here, we resolve these issues on a 300-mm wafer platform by exploiting the emerging orbital degree of freedom and the resultant orbital torque (OT) from the relatively thick Ti/W bilayer. In particular, OT memory nanodevices exhibit a giant tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of 182%, nanosecond-scale response, 1012 endurance, together with an enhanced switching efficiency (E_b/I_c), which consequently enables an ultra-low write energy of less than 0.1 pJ/bit. Our findings demonstrate that orbital angular momentum can be implemented for building energy-efficient MRAM devices, offering a practical pathway towards low-latency memory that is demanded for high-performance computing and AI applications.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Zeng, Dinggui, Gao, Yang, Duan, Jinyu, Zhao, Lei, An, Yuhao, He, Xing, Ke, Jintao, Ga, Yonglong, Wang, Shasha, Ji, Zhenghui, Chen, Muyuan, Zhou, Hengan, Xie, Xuejie, Liu, Enlong, Gong, Junlu, Guo, Qijun, Sun, Yihui, Zheng, Zejie, He, Weiming, Yang, Xiaolei, Meng, Fantao, Wang, Yaohua, Yang, Hongxin, Zhang, Delin, Jiang, Yong, Jiang, Wanjun, He, Shikun
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213527214