There has been greate interest on current-induced magnetic excitation and switching in a magnetic nanopillar after the theoretical prediction by Slonczewski and Berger. The concept of using a spin-polarized current to switch the magnetization orientation of a magnetic layer provides great possibility on realizing future "current-driven" devices, i.e. direct switching of the magnetic memory bits by local application of current, instead of the field generated by external wires. Untill now all the reported current-induced magnetization switching (CIMS) works are concentrated on the simple ferromagnet FM/Cu/FM trilayers. In this work, the first observation of the CIMS in exchange-biased spin-valves (ESPVs) is reported. The ESPVs clearly show the CIMS behavior under a sweeping dc current with a very high current density. It is demonstrated that a Ruthenium (Ru) layer inserted between ESPV nanopillar and top electrode effectively decreases the critical current density from ~10⁸ A/cm² to ~10⁷ A/cm². In one of our well-designed ESPV structures, the critical current density can be reduced down to 1x10⁶ A/cm². The substantial reduction of the critical current density makes it possible for the CIMS to be directly applied in spintronic devices, such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM).

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