Current-induced crystallisation in a Heusler-alloy-based giant magnetoresistive junction for neuromorphic potentiation

Recent development in neuromorphic computation allows us to achieve low power and highly efficient calculations better than the conventional von Neumann computation. In order to achieve realistic synaptic operation, potentiation to add weighting to strengthen a selected artificial synapse. Such functionality can be achieved by reducing the electrical resistance of the artificial synapse. Recently, a ferromagnetic Heusler alloy used in a magnetoresistive junction has been demonstrated to crystallise via the layer-by-layer mode by introducing an electrical current pulse. In this study, we have extended the current-induced crystallisation to a junction with epitaxially-grown Heusler alloy after post-annealing for crystallisation. By combining this potentiation functionality with the neuromorphic operation, realistic synaptic computation can be developed.