Micromagnetics of spin valve memory cells

This paper presents a systematic micromagnetic analysis on spin valve GMR memory elements. It is found that for submicron size spin valve elements, edge demagnetization field, arising from the pinned layer, results in significant magnetization curling at the end edges of the free layer. This edge demagnetization phenomenon yields significant degradation of device performance. It is proposed that by making the pinned film element slightly longer than the free layer so that the ends of the free and pinned layers are separated, the edge demagnetization in the free layer can be essentially eliminated.