Energy-efficient switching of nanomagnets for computing: Straintronics and other methodologies

Abstract

The need for increasingly powerful computing hardware has spawned many ideas stipulating, primarily, the replacement of traditional transistors with alternate "switches" that dissipate miniscule amounts of energy when they switch and provide additional functionality that are beneficial for information processing. An interesting idea that has emerged recently is the notion of using two-phase (piezoelectric/magnetostrictive) multiferroic nanomagnets with bistable (or multi-stable) magnetization states to encode digital information (bits), and switching the magnetization between these states with small voltages (that strain the nanomagnets) to carry out digital information processing. The switching delay is ~1 ns and the energy dissipated in the switching operation can be few to tens of aJ, which is comparable to, or smaller than, the energy dissipated in switching a modern-day transistor. Unlike a transistor, a nanomagnet is "non-volatile", so a nanomagnetic processing unit can store the result of a computation locally without refresh cycles, thereby allowing it to double as both logic and memory. These dual-role elements promise new, robust, energy-efficient, high-speed computing and signal processing architectures (usually non-Boolean and often non-von-Neumann) that can be more powerful, architecturally superior (fewer circuit elements needed to implement a given function) and sometimes faster than their traditional transistor-based counterparts. This topical review covers the important advances in computing and information processing with nanomagnets with emphasis on strain-switched multiferroic nanomagnets acting as non-volatile and energy-efficient switches - a field known as "straintronics". It also outlines key challenges in straintronics.

arXiv commentThis is a commissioned topical review article published in Nanotechnology

References in corpus (64)

• Topological Insulators
• Spin torque switching with the giant spin Hall effect of tantalum
• Spin Transfer Torques
• Spin Torque Ferromagnetic Resonance Induced by the Spin Hall Effect
• Spin Transfer Torque Generated by the Topological Insulator Bi_2Se_3
• Spin transfer torque devices utilizing the giant spin Hall effect of tungsten
• Switching of perpendicular magnetization by spin-orbit torques in the absence of external magnetic fields
• Surface Magnetoelectric Effect in Ferromagnetic Metal Films
• Measurement of the Spin-Transfer-Torque Vector in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
• Evidence for reversible control of magnetization in a ferromagnetic material via spin-orbit magnetic field
• Large tuneable Rashba spin splitting of a two-dimensional electron gas in Bi2Se3
• Acoustically driven ferromagnetic resonance
• Thermally assisted magnetization reversal in the presence of a spin-transfer torque
• Giant Spin Hall Effect Induced by Skew Scattering from Bismuth Impurities inside Thin Film CuBi Alloys
• Hybrid spintronics and straintronics: A magnetic technology for ultra low energy computing and signal processing
• Intrinsic optimization using stochastic nanomagnets
• Coherent magnetization precession in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As induced by picosecond acoustic pulses
• Voltage-assisted Magnetization Switching in Ultrathin Fe80Co20 Alloy Layers
• Proposal for an All-Spin Artificial Neural Network: Emulating Neural and Synaptic Functionalities Through Domain Wall Motion in Ferromagnets
• Spin-Based Neuron Model with Domain Wall Magnets as Synapse
• Quantum Kinetic Theory of Current-Induced Torques in Rashba Ferromagnets
• Spin-transfer pulse switching: From the dynamic to the thermally activated regime
• Simulation Studies of Nanomagnet-Based Architecture
• Bennett clocking of nanomagnetic logic using electrically induced rotation of magnetization in multiferroic single-domain nanomagnets
• Experimental Clocking of Nanomagnets with Strain for Ultra Low Power Boolean Logic
• Magnetization switching by ultrashort acoustic pulses
• Experimental demonstration of complete 180 degree reversal of magnetization in isolated Co-nanomagnets on a PMN-PT substrate with voltage generated strain
• Energy dissipation and switching delay in stress-induced switching of multiferroic devices in the presence of thermal fluctuations
• Non-volatile Spin Switch for Boolean and Non-Boolean Logic
• An electromechanical Ising machine
• Probabilistic Deep Spiking Neural Systems Enabled by Magnetic Tunnel Junction
• Switching energy-delay of all-spin logic devices
• Voltage and Energy-Delay Performance of Giant Spin Hall Effect Switching for Magnetic Memory and Logic
• Giant Voltage Manipulation of MgO-based Magnetic Tunnel Junctions via Localized Anisotropic Strain: a Potential Pathway to Ultra-Energy-Efficient Memory Technology
• Irreversible magnetization switching using surface acoustic waves
• Interacting Systems for Self-Correcting Low Power Switching
• Switching the magnetization of magnetostrictive nanomagnets from single-domain to non-volatile vortex states with a surface acoustic wave
• Spin Orbit Torque Based Electronic Neuron
• Selective spin wave excitation in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As layers by picosecond strain pulses
• All Spin Logic device with inbuilt Non-Reciprocity
• Binary switching in a symmetric potential landscape
• Spin Neurons: A Possible Path to Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Computers
• Magnetization Dynamics, Throughput and Energy Dissipation in a Universal Multiferroic Nanomagnetic Logic Gate with Fan-in and Fan-out
• Effect of picosecond strain pulses on thin layers of the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)(As,P)
• Electric-field control of domain wall nucleation and pinning in a metallic ferromagnet
• Electrostatically Controlled Magnetization Rotation in Ferromagnet-Topological Insulator Planar Structures
• Voltage controlled core reversal of fixed magnetic skyrmions without a magnetic field
• Switching of Dipole Coupled Multiferroic Nanomagnets in the Presence of Thermal Noise: Reliability of Nanomagnetic Logic
• Voltage-Gated Modulation of Domain Wall Velocity in an Ultrathin Metallic Ferromagnet
• Electric field control of magnetic states in isolated and dipole-coupled FeGa nanomagnets delineated on a PMN-PT substrate
• Self-similar Magneto-electric Nanocircuit Technology for Probabilistic Inference Engines
• Magneto-elastic universal logic gate: A non-volatile, error-resilient Boolean logic gate with ultra-low energy-delay product
• Skyrmion mediated voltage controlled switching of ferromagnets for reliable and energy efficient 2-terminal memory
• Dynamic Error in Strain Induced Magnetization Reversal of Nanomagnets due to Incoherent Switching and Formation of Metastable States: A Size-dependent Study
• Image Processing with Dipole-Coupled Nanomagnets: Noise Suppression and Edge Enhancement Detection
• Experimental demonstration of acoustic wave induced magnetization switching of dipole coupled magnetostrictive nanomagnets for ultralow power computing
• Switching of Magnetic Moments of Nanoparticles by Surface Acoustic Waves
• An ultrafast image recovery and recognition system implemented with nanomagnets possessing biaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy
• Geometry Effects in Switching of Nanomagnets with Strain: Reliability, Energy Dissipation and Clock Speed in Dipole-Coupled Nanomagnetic Logic
• Energy dissipation and error probability in fault-tolerant binary switching
• Critical analysis and remedy of switching failures in straintronic logic using Bennett clocking in the presence of thermal fluctuations
• Binary information propagation in circular magnetic nanodot arrays using strain induced magnetic anisotropy
• Electric-field induced domain-wall dynamics: depinning and chirality switching
• Energy-efficient hybrid spintronic-straintronic reconfigurable bit comparator

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Straintronics: Manipulating the Magnetization of Magnetostrictive Nanomagnets with Strain for Energy-Efficient Applications
• Hybrid magneto-dynamical modes in a single magnetostrictive nanomagnet on a piezoelectric substrate arising from magneto-elastic modulation of precessional dynamics
• Error Probability in Magneto-elastic Switching of Non-ideal Nanomagnets with Defects: A Case Study for the Viability of Straintronic Logic and Memory
• Quantum Control of Spin Qubits Using Nanomagnets
• Applications of Nanomagnets as Dynamical Systems
• Resonant Acoustic Wave Assisted Spin-Transfer-Torque Switching of Nanomagnets
• A Microwave Oscillator Based on a Single Straintronic Magneto-tunneling Junction
• Nanomagnetic Boolean Logic -- The Tempered (and Realistic) Vision
• Straintronic magnetic tunnel junctions for analog computation: A perspective