Field-free spin–orbit torque switching of magnetic tunnel junction structure based on two-dimensional van der Waals WTe2

In recent years, two-dimensional van der Waals (2D vdWs) heterostructures have attracted great research interest due to their great potential in fundamental physics research and spintronic devices (such as MTJs). Due to its excellent scalability, controllable magnetism and out-of-plane anisotropy, the compact nonvolatile memory controller (NV-MC) based on spintronics is expected to solve the memory bottle-neck problem. At present, a series of in-depth studies have been conducted on advanced 2D vdWs materials, such as MoS2, WSe2, and Fe3GeTe2 (FGT). The results show that the 2D vdWs materials have great TMR value and high SOT switching efficiency, both theoretically reported and experimentally verified. In the paper, a novel MTJ device based on the FGT/WTe2 heterostructure is proposed. In the absence of an external magnetic field, the magnetization direction of the MTJ free layer can still be reversed with certainty when the unipolar write current reaches about 5 mA. Moreover, the DMI effect generated between 2-D material/FM interfaces is also considered, which can promote the performance of SOT-MTJ without the external field. The reading reliability of SOT-MRAM is improved in comparison with the traditional CoFeB-based MTJ device.