Angle-dependent switching in a magnetic tunnel junction containing a synthetic antiferromagnet

The angle dependence of field-induced switching was investigated in magnetic tunnel junctions with in-plane magnetization and a pinned synthetic antiferromagnet reference layer. The 60 × 90 nm2 elliptical nanopillars had sharp single switches when the field was applied along the major axis of the ellipse, but even with small (20°) deviations, reversal occurred through an intermediate state. The results are interpreted with a model that includes the external applied field and the effective fields due to shape anisotropy and the fringe field of the synthetic antiferromagnet and used to extract the magnetization direction at various points in the magnetoresistance loop. The implications for faster spintronic probabilistic computing devices are discussed.