Ten States of Nonvolatile Memory through Engineering Ferromagnetic Remanent Magnetization

Emerging nonvolatile multilevel memory devices have been regarded as a promising solution to meet the increasing demand of high‐density memory with low‐power consumption. In particular, decimal system of the new computers instead of binary system could be developed if ten nonvolatile states are realized. Here, a general remanent magnetism engineering method is proposed for realizing multiple reliable magnetic and resistance states, not depending on a specific material or device structure. Especially, as a proof‐of‐concept demonstration, ten states of nonvolatile memory based on the manipulation of ferromagnetic remanent magnetization have been revealed in both Co/Pt magnetic multilayers with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and MgO‐based magnetic tunneling junctions at room temperature. Considering ferromagnets have been one of the key factors that enabled the information revolution from its inception, this state‐of‐the‐art remanent magnetism engineering approach has a very broad application prospect in the field of spintronics. Ten states of nonvolatile memory are demonstrated in both Co/Pt magnetic multilayers and MgO‐based magnetic tunneling junctions based on the manipulation of ferromagnetic remanent magnetization. Moreover, this remanent magnetization engineering method could be adapted to other systems containing multidomain ferromagnets. Hence, this method provides an attractive way toward multilevel nonvolatile memory devices.