Patent ID: 8310867

Claim:
A recording method of a nonvolatile solid state magnetic memory, the memory comprising: a substrate; a recording layer formed on the substrate, the recording layer being a carrier induced ferromagnetic semiconductor layer made of a group IV semiconductor, a group III-V semiconductor, a group II-VI semiconductor, a group II-VI-V 2 semiconductor, or an oxide semiconductor doped with transition metal element or rare earth metal element; an electrically insulating layer formed on the recording layer; and a metallic electrode layer formed on the insulating layer, wherein the insulating layer is a Schottky barrier formed by a junction between the metallic electrode layer and the recording layer, the method comprising the steps of: applying a voltage across the recording layer and the metallic electrode layer; and increasing and/or decreasing a carrier (electron or hole) concentration in the recording layer and thereby controlling a direction of an easy axis of magnetization of the recording layer to control the magnetization direction of the recording layer.