Time-resolved spin-torque switching in MgO-based perpendicularly magnetized tunnel junctions

We study nanosecond-scale spin-torque-induced switching in perpendicularly magnetized tunnel junctions. Although the switching voltages match with the macrospin instability threshold, the electrical signatures of the reversal indicate the presence of domain walls in junctions of various sizes. In the antiparallel (AP)-to-parallel (P) switching, a nucleation phase is followed by an irreversible flow of a wall through the sample at an average velocity of 40 m/s with back-and-forth oscillation movements indicating a Walker propagation regime. A model with a single wall locally responding to the spin torque reproduces the essential dynamical signatures of the reversal. The P-to-AP transition has a complex dynamics with dynamical back-hopping whose probability increases with voltage. We attribute this back-hopping to the instability of the nominally fixed layers.