Spintronics exhibits significant potential in neuromorphic computing system with high speed, high integration density, and low dissipation. In this letter, we propose an ultralow-dissipation spintronic memristor composed of a synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) and a piezoelectric substrate. Skyrmions/skyrmion bubbles can be generated in the upper layer of SAF with weak anisotropy energy (Ea). With a weak electric field on the heterostructure, the interlayer antiferromagnetic coupling can be manipulated, giving rise to a continuous transition between a large skyrmion bubble and a small skyrmion. This thus induces the variation of the resistance of a magnetic tunneling junction. The synapse based on this principle may manipulate the weight in a wide range at a cost of a very low energy consumption of 0.3 fJ. These results pave a way to ultralow power neuromorphic computing applications.
@article{arxiv.1906.09758,
title = {Voltage-controlled skyrmion-based artificial synapse in a synthetic antiferromagnet},
author = {Ziyang Yu and Maokang Shen and Zhongming Zeng and Shiheng Liang and Yong Liu and Ming Chen and Zhenhua Zhang and Zhihong Lu and Yue Zhang and Rui Xiong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.09758},
year = {2019}
}