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Optical receiver with helicity-dependent magnetization reversal

Azim, Zubair Al; Ostler, Thomas A.; Xu, Chudong; Roy, Kaushik

Authors

Zubair Al Azim

Thomas A. Ostler

Chudong Xu

Kaushik Roy



Abstract

In this paper, we propose helicity-dependent switching (HDS) of magnetization in Co/Pt for an energy efficient optical receiver. Designing a low-power optical receiver for optical-to-electrical signal conversion has proven to be very challenging. Current day optical receivers use a photodiode that produces a photocurrent in response to input optical signals, and power hungry transimpedance amplifiers are required to amplify the small photocurrents. These limitations can be overcome by using light helicity-induced switching of magnetization which can avoid the requirement of photodiodes and subsequent transimpedance amplification by sensing the change in magnetization with a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). Magnetization switching of a thin ferromagnet layer using circularly polarized laser pulses has recently been demonstrated which shows a one-to-one correspondence between light helicity and the magnetization state. We use these phenomena to directly switch the magnetization state of a thin Co/Pt ferromagnet layer at the receiver via circularly polarized laser pulses. The circular polarization is controlled in accordance with digital input data which establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the transmitted data and output magnetization state. The Co/Pt layer is used as the free layer of an MTJ, the resistance of which is modified by the laser pulses. Since the output magnetization state is controlled by the input data, the MTJ resistance is directly converted to a digital output signal. Our device-to-circuit level simulation results indicate that HDS-based optical receiver circuit consumes only 0.124 pJ/bit energy, which is much lower than existing techniques.

Citation

Azim, Z. A., Ostler, T. A., Xu, C., & Roy, K. (2019). Optical receiver with helicity-dependent magnetization reversal. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 55(1), Article 4400206. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMAG.2018.2878008

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 17, 2018
Online Publication Date Nov 25, 2018
Publication Date 2019-01
Deposit Date Jun 16, 2022
Journal IEEE Transactions on Magnetics
Print ISSN 0018-9464
Publisher Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 55
Issue 1
Article Number 4400206
DOI https://doi.org/10.1109/TMAG.2018.2878008
Keywords Laser-induced magnetization reversal; Magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ); Magnetization dynamics; Optical interconnect
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4015060