Fig. 3: Thermally assisted depinning of SVAPs.

The thermal evolution of the vortices in Fig. 1c and d are shown in a–d and e–h, respectively. After a thermal pulse with an amplitude of Tset, as denoted in the image, is applied, MFM images are obtained at 4.2 K. The inset curve in d provides a detailed time scale of the applied thermal pulse. The annihilation of each vortex‒antivortex pair is traced by the box‒circle link with a dotted colored line. i Schematic view of the creation of isolated vortices via out-of-plane magnetization. j‒l Thermal evolution of isolated vortices created according to the method described in i. The images demonstrate the isotropic behavior of the vortices during the thermal process. All MFM images were taken at 4.2 K with a tip-to-sample distance of 600 nm.