Correct Determination of Hysteresis of Nonlinear Current-Voltage Characteristics of Spin Valves, Magnetic Tunnel Junctions, or Memristors

Abstract

Until now, significant progress has been made in synthesizing the current-switched structure of spin valves and magnetic tunnel junctions with hysteresis dependences of the resistance on the current. These structures are of interest for creation of small-size electronic memory. However, hysteresis of resistance, which is usually presented in publications, does not correspond to physical principles. In this paper, we show how the hysteresis dependence of the resistance on the current, or the conductance on the voltage, which does not contradict the energy conservation law, and the corresponding current–voltage characteristic should look like. As an example, we present the experimental current–voltage characteristic of the CO₂MnSi/MgO/Co₂MnSi magnetic tunnel junction, which agrees with the model hysteresis dependences.