Method of pinning domain walls in a nanowire magnetic memory device

摘要

There is provided a method of pinning domain walls in a magnetic memory device (10) comprising using an antiferromagnetic material to create domain wall pinning sites. Junctions (22) where arrays of ferromagnetic nanowires (16) and antiferromagnetic nanowires (20) cross exhibit a permanent exchange bias interaction between the ferromagnetic material and the antiferromagnetic material which creates domain wall pinning sites. The exchange bias field is between 30 to 3600 Oe and the anisotropy direction of the ferromagnetic elements is between 15 to 75° to an anisotropy direction of the antiferromagnetic elements.