Gone are the days when all our data could fit on a two-megabyte floppy disk. Today, with the growing amount of data we manage, we need memory solutions that offer low power consumption and high capacity. Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) is part of the next generation of storage devices designed to meet these needs. Researchers at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR) have studied a cobalt-manganese-iron alloy thin film that shows high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), crucial for making MRAM devices using spintronics.
This is the first time a cobalt-manganese-iron alloy has demonstrated a strong large PMA. The researchers had previously discovered that this alloy exhibited a high tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect, but it is uncommon for an alloy to show both properties. For example, iron-cobalt-boron alloys, typically used for MRAM, have both traits, but their PMA is not strong enough.
