Researchers from Northwestern University, led by Prof. Pedram Khalili, report the first all-antiferromagnetic tunnel junction (ATJ) devices with both electrical switching and electrical readout of the antiferromagnetic state. The researchers observed a large room-temperature tunneling magnetoresistance effect that is comparable in size to conventional ferromagnet-based tunnel junctions.
To create the new devices, the researchers used sputtering to deposit the device films on conventional silicon wafers. The films are compatible with established semiconductor manufacturing processes.
Prof. Khalili explains that the team has been working for the past 6 years on antiferromagnetic MRAM, which can potentially enable much higher density, scalability to advanced nodes, and speed, compared to today's ferromagnetic MRAM. A key question with antiferromagnetic MRAM, however, has always been whether you can efficiently read out information from it, and the new work confirms that it is indeed possible.