Reliable spin-transfer torque driven precessional magnetization reversal with an adiabatically decaying pulse

Abstract

We show that a slowly decaying current pulse can lead to nearly deterministic precessional switching in the presence of noise. We consider a biaxial macrospin, with an easy axis in the plane and a hard axis out-of-the plane, typical of thin film nanomagnets patterned into asymmetric shapes. Out-of-plane precessional magnetization orbits are excited with a current pulse with a component of spin polarization normal to the film plane. By numerically integrating the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Slonczewski equation we show that thermal noise leads to strong dephasing of the magnetization orbits. However, an adiabatically decreasing pulse amplitude overwhelmingly leads to magnetization reversal, with a final state that {\em only} depends on the pulse polarity, not on the pulse amplitude. We develop an analytic model to explain this phenomena and to determine the pulse decay time necessary for adiabatic magnetization relaxation and thus precessional magnetization switching.