Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert study of the effect of pulse width on spin-transfer torque magnetization switching

We studied the effect of a current pulse width on current-induced magnetization switching in magnetic tunnel junctions based on a macrospin model of the free layer. We performed finite temperature Langevin simulations of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert–Slonczewski equation with an additional spin-torque term. By evaluating the switching current density, we obtained the diagram in the plane of the critical current density and the pulse width at 300 K. As the pulse width increased, we observed an adiabatic regime in the shorter pulse widths, an intermediate crossover regime, and a thermally activated regime in long pulse widths. We found that the easy-plane anisotropy field shifts the crossover pulse width to the lower pulse width, suggesting that the reversed region is enhanced by controlling the device shape. Our results are consistent with those of recent experiments over the pulse widths ranging from 10^-1 to 10⁵ ns.