Breaking voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy-magnetoresistance trade-off for ultralow-energy switching in magnetic tunnel junctions.

Authors

Yu Zhang, Meng Xu, Bowei Zhou, Carter Eckel, Supriya Ghosh, Hwanhui Yun, Ali Habiboglu, Deyuan Lyu, Daniel B Gopman, Jian-Ping Wang, K Andre Mkhoyan, Weigang Wang

Published in

Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 33. Pages eaef6328. Aug 14, 2026. Epub Aug 14, 2026.

Abstract

Electric-field control of spin states offers a promising route to ultralow-power, ultrafast magnetization switching in spintronic devices such as magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). However, enhancing voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) through interfacial engineering often disrupts coherent tunneling and suppresses tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR), limiting practical device performance. Here, we experimentally demonstrate highly energy-efficient, voltage-driven magnetization switching in MTJs enabled by a remote iridium (Ir) doping strategy that tailors the Ir concentration near the MgO/CoFeB interface in the free layer. By inserting an ultrathin Ir layer away from the tunnel barrier and leveraging controlled diffusion during annealing, we achieve sub-nanosecond switching with an energy of only 3.5 femtojoules per bit in nanoscale MTJs while maintaining a TMR ratio up to 160% after 400°C postannealing. These results resolve a long-standing VCMA-TMR trade-off and establish a scalable pathway toward ultralow-power nonvolatile spintronic devices under aggressive energy and scaling constraints.

PMID:
42600015
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Aug 2026.

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