Patent ID: 8796796
Filing Date: 2014-08-05
Classification: G11C,H01L

Abstract:
1. A magnetic junction for use in a magnetic device comprising: a free layer having a free layer magnetic moment perpendicular-to-plane; a nonmagnetic spacer layer having a first crystalline orientation, a reference stack including a high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) layer and a graded polarization enhancement layer (PEL), the nonmagnetic spacer layer residing between the graded PEL and the free layer, the graded PEL being between the high PMA layer and the nonmagnetic spacer layer, the high PMA layer having a magnetic moment perpendicular-to-plane, a second crystalline orientation and a first spin polarization, the graded PEL being adjacent to and magnetically coupled with the high PMA layer, the graded PEL including a plurality of magnetic layers and a plurality of nonmagnetic insertion layers, at least a portion of the PEL having a second spin polarization greater than the first spin polarization and being adjacent to the nonmagnetic spacer layer, the plurality of nonmagnetic insertion layers being configured such that the plurality of magnetic layers are ferromagnetically coupled and such that the first crystalline orientation is decoupled from the second crystalline orientation, each of the plurality of nonmagnetic insertion layers having a thickness, the thickness of each of the plurality of nonmagnetic insertion layers being insufficient for the first crystalline orientation to be decoupled from the second crystalline orientation in the absence of a remaining portion of the plurality of nonmagnetic insertion layers; wherein the magnetic junction is configured such that the free layer is switchable between a plurality of stable magnetic states when a write current is passed through the magnetic junction.