CoIr/Pt Multilayers Enabling Physical Unclonable Function via Domain Wall Motion.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Spintronics devices offer high reliability and CMOS compatibility for advanced electronics.
• Low energy operation is crucial for next-generation electronic devices.
• Novel materials and device designs are needed to unlock spintronics potential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel CoIr/Pt heterostructure for low-energy spintronic applications.
• To demonstrate the utility of this heterostructure in physically unclonable function (PUF) devices.
• To enhance hardware security primitives through advanced material design.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of CoIr/Pt heterostructures with negative magnetocrystalline anisotropy.
• Characterization of perpendicular magnetization and low effective magnetic anisotropy energy.
• Integration into spin-orbit torque-driven domain wall (DW) PUF devices.

Main Results:

• Achieved perpendicular magnetization in CoIr/Pt by inverting anisotropy with Pt layers.
• Demonstrated a five-fold reduction in switching current density compared to Co/Pt stacks.
• Successfully implemented a 4 × 32-bit PUF device with unique outputs and simplified programming architecture, overcoming DW pinning challenges.

Conclusions:

• The CoIr/Pt heterostructure enables low-energy, high-performance spintronic devices.
• This material facilitates the development of robust and miniaturized PUF-based hardware security.
• The findings offer a promising pathway for integrating advanced security primitives into electronic systems.