Reliable spin-transfer torque driven precessional magnetization reversal with an adiabatically decaying pulse

We show that a slowly decaying current pulse can lead to nearly deterministic precessional switching in the presence of noise. We consider a biaxial macrospin, with an easy axis in-plane and a hard axis out-of-plane, typical of thin film nanomagnets patterned into asymmetric shapes. Out-of-plane precessional magnetization orbits are excited with a current pulse with a component of spin polarization normal to the film plane. By numerically integrating the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Slonczewski equation we show that thermal noise leads to strong dephasing of the magnetization orbits. However, an adiabatically decreasing pulse amplitude overwhelmingly leads to magnetization reversal, with a final state dependent on the pulse polarity. We develop an analytic model to explain this phenomena and to determine the pulse decay time necessary for adiabatic magnetization relaxation and thus deterministic magnetization switching.