Graded-Anisotropy-Induced Magnetic Domain Wall Drift for an Artificial Spintronic Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Neuron

Spintronic three-terminal magnetic-tunnel-junction (3T-MTJ) devices have gained considerable interest in the field of neuromorphic computing. Previously, these devices required external circuitry to implement the leaking functionality that leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons should display. However, the use of external circuitry results in decreased device efficiency. We previously demonstrated lateral inhibition with a 3T-MTJ neuron that intrinsically performs the leaking, integrating, and firing functions; however, it required the fabrication of a complex multilayer structure. In this paper, we introduce an anisotropy gradient to implement a single-layer intrinsically leaking 3T-MTJ LIF neuron without the use of any external circuitry. This provides the leaking functionality with no hardware cost and reduced fabrication complexity, which increases the device, circuit, system, and cost efficiency.