Journal
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 117, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
AIP Publishing
DOI: 10.1063/5.0012269
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Funding
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
- National Key Technology Program of China [2017ZX01032101]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [61627813]
- Beihang Hefei Innovation Research Institute [BHKX-17-06]
- China Scholarship Council (CSC)
- [B16001]
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All-optical switching (AOS) of the magnetization in synthetic ferrimagnetic Pt/Co/Gd stacks has received considerable interest due to its high potential toward integration with spintronic devices, such as magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), to enable ultrafast memory applications. Post-annealing is an essential process in the MTJ fabrication to obtain an optimized tunnel magnetoresistance ratio. However, upon integrating AOS with an MTJ in prospect, the annealing effects on single-pulse AOS and domain wall (DW) dynamics in the Pt/Co/Gd stacks have not been systematically investigated yet. In this study, we experimentally explore the annealing effect on AOS and field-induced DW motion in Pt/Co/Gd stacks. The results show that the threshold fluence (F-0) of AOS is reduced significantly as a function of annealing temperature (T-a) ranging from 100 degrees C to 300 degrees C. Specifically, a 28% reduction of F-0 can be observed upon annealing at 300 degrees C, which is a critical T-a for MTJ fabrication. Finally, we also demonstrate a significant increase in the DW velocity in the creep regime upon annealing, which is attributed to annealing-induced Co/Gd interface intermixing. Our findings show that the annealed Pt/Co/Gd system facilitates ultrafast and energy-efficient AOS, as well as enhanced DW velocity, which is highly suitable toward opto-spintronic memory applications.
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