Ferrimagnetic/ferromagnetic exchange bilayers for use as a fixed magnetic layer in a superconducting-based memory device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11211117-B2
Application number	US-201916256547-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2019
Priority date	Jan 24, 2019
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

A magnetic Josephson junction (MJJ) device having a ferrimagnetic/ferromagnetic (FIM/FM) exchange-biased bilayer used as the magnetic hard layer improves switching performance by effectively sharpening the hysteresis curve of the device, thereby reducing error rate when the device is used in a Josephson magnetic random access memory (JMRAM) memory cell. Thus, the materials and devices described herein can be used to build a new type of MJJ, termed a ferrimagnetic Josephson junction (FIMJJ), for use in JMRAM, to construct a robust and reliable cryogenic computer memory that can be used for high-speed superconducting computing, e.g., with clock speeds in the microwave frequency range.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A magnetic Josephson junction (MJJ) device comprising:
a first superconducting material layer and a second superconducting material layer each configured as a galvanic contact for the device on respective top and bottom ends of the device;
a first magnetic layer and a magnetic bilayer comprising a second magnetic layer and an adjacent third magnetic layer, both the first magnetic layer and the magnetic bilayer being located between the first and second superconducting material layers, the third magnetic layer being a ferrimagnet; and
a normal metal spacer layer between the first magnetic layer and the magnetic bilayer;
wherein the MJJ device is configured to store a binary logical value as a magnetic orientation of the first magnetic layer with reference to the magnetic orientation of the second magnetic layer.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the second magnetic layer has a thickness of between about 0.5 nanometers and about two nanometers and is selected from one of Ni 80 Fe 20 binary or ternary alloys, CO x Fe y B x , CoxFe 1−x and wherein the ferrimagnet has a thickness of between about 0.5 nanometers and about two nanometers and is of the formula RE x TM 1−x , where RE is a rare earth metal selected from among gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), or thulium (Tm), and TM is a ferromagnetic transition metal selected from among iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), or cobalt (Co), where 0<x<1.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the first magnetic layer is configured as a magnetic switching layer, has a thickness of between about 0.5 nanometers and about two nanometers, and is made of any of elemental cobalt, elemental iron, a cobalt-iron alloy, a nickel-iron alloy, or a nickel-iron-chromium alloy.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the first ferromagnetic layer is a nickel-iron 80:20 permalloy.

5. The device of claim 2 , wherein the second magnetic layer is a Ni 80 Fe 20 layer and wherein the ferrimagnet is a Gd x Fe 1−x layer.

6. The device of claim 2 , wherein the second magnetic layer is a Ni 80 Fe 20 layer and wherein the ferrimagnet is a Gd x Co 1−x layer.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first superconducting material layer has a thickness of between about one hundred nanometers and about two hundred nanometers, and wherein the second superconducting material layer has a thickness of between about twenty nanometers and about one hundred nanometers, and wherein the first and second superconducting material layers are of niobium, niobium nitride, or aluminum.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the spacer layer is made of at least one of elemental copper, elemental ruthenium, elemental iridium, or elemental rhodium.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the spacer layer has a thickness of between about 2.5 nanometers and about 7.5 nanometers.

10. A superconducting memory element comprising the MJJ device of claim 1 , and further comprising an easy axis field line and a hard axis field line that are each inductively coupled to the first magnetic layer to provide controlled switching of the MJJ device between a state in which the magnetization of the first magnetic layer is parallel with the magnetization of the second magnetic layer and a state in which the magnetization of the first magnetic layer is antiparallel with the magnetization of the second magnetic layer, thereby writing a binary state to the MJJ device detectable as a difference in superconducting phase of the MJJ device.

11. A superconducting memory unit cell comprising the superconducting memory element of claim 10 , the superconducting memory unit cell comprising:
an rf-SQUID storage loop comprising first and second inductors and the superconducting memory element, the first and second inductors being transformer-coupled to a superconducting word read line,
a dc-SQUID readout loop comprising first and second Josephson junctions and the superconducting memory element, the readout loop being galvanically connected to a bit read line.

12. A superconducting memory array comprising multiple instances of the superconducting memory unit cell of claim 11 arranged in rows and columns, with multiple word write lines and bit write lines respectively provided to the superconducting memory elements of the superconducting memory unit cell instances to addressably write binary logical states to the individual superconducting memory elements, and with word read lines and bit read lines provided to the superconducting memory unit cell instances to addressably read the binary logical states.

13. A superconducting memory element comprising:
first and second superconducting wires providing galvanic input and output to the memory element;
first and second field lines providing inductive memory state write input to the memory element;
a magnetic Josephson junction (MJJ) arranged between and connecting the first and second superconducting wires, the MJJ having a free ferromagnetic layer and a fixed ferromagnetic layer that together can occupy one of a parallel or antiparallel magnetization configuration corresponding to a binary logic state, the MJJ having a ferrimagnetic layer adjacent to and magnetically coupled to the fixed ferromagnetic layer.

14. The superconducting memory element of claim 13 , wherein the fixed ferromagnetic layer has a thickness of between about 0.5 nanometers and about two nanometers and is selected from one of Ni 80 Fe 20 binary or ternary alloys, Co x Fe y B x , or Co x Fe 1−x , and wherein the ferrimagnetic layer has a thickness of between about 0.5 nanometers and about two nanometers and is of the formula RE x TM 1−x , where RE is a rare earth metal selected from among gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), or thulium (Tm), and TM is a ferromagnetic transition metal selected from among iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), or cobalt (Co), where 0<x<1.

15. The superconducting memory element of claim 13 , wherein the fixed ferromagnetic layer is a Ni 80 Fe 20 layer and wherein the ferrimagnetic layer is a Gd x Fe 1−x layer.

16. The superconducting memory element of claim 13 , wherein the fixed ferromagnetic layer is a Ni 80 Fe 20 layer and wherein the ferrimagnetic layer is a Gd x Co 1−x layer.

17. A method of fabricating an improved magnetic Josephson junction comprising:
depositing a base electrode layer of a superconducting material;
depositing a first buffer layer on top of the base electrode layer;
depositing one of a switching magnetic layer comprising a first magnetic layer or a fixed magnetic layer comprising a magnetic bilayer on top of the first buffer layer, wherein the first magnetic layer comprises a ferromagnetic material and the magnetic bilayer comprises a ferromagnetic material layer and a ferrimagnetic material layer;
depositing a spacer layer on top of the switching magnetic layer or the fixed magnetic layer;
depositing the other of the switching magnetic layer or the fixed magnetic layer on top of the spacer layer;
depositing a second buffer layer on top of the other of the switching magnetic layer or the fixed magnetic layer; and
depositing a top electrode layer of a superconducting material on top of the second buffer layer.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the ferromagnetic material layer of the magnetic bilayer has a thickness of between about 0.5 nanometers and about two nanometers and is selected from one of Ni 80 Fe 20 binary or ternary alloys, Co x Fe y B x , or Co x Fe 1−x , and wherein the ferrimagnetic material layer of the magnetic bilayer has a thickness of

Assignees

• Loving Melissa G
• Ambrose Thomas F
• Northrop Grumman Systems Corp

Inventors

• Loving Melissa G
• Ambrose Thomas F

Classifications

• H10N50/85

  Materials of the active region · CPC title

• G11C11/44 Primary

  using super-conductive elements, e.g. cryotron · CPC title

• H01L39/025

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L27/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L39/223

  Electricity · mapped topic