Fig. 1: FM–SAF magnetic lateral junction.
a, Optical (top) and atomic force microscopy (bottom) images of a representative FM–SAF junction formed within a racetrack nanowire device. The θJ = 60°. Note that the colour contrast outside the racetrack itself originates from etching of the encapsulating alumina layer during the second resist development process (see Supplementary Information for details). The plot in the bottom right panel shows the topographic height along the blue dashed line in the bottom left panel. b, Magnetic easy-axis hysteresis loops, with moment m versus field Hz, of the pristine SAF (blue curve) and oxidized SAF (orange curve) that is transformed into an FM. Note that the hysteresis loops are obtained from the same sample before and after the oxidation process. Bottom inset: zoomed-in view. Top inset: pristine SAF film structure consisting of the underlayer (20 TaN|/30 Pt), lower FM layer (LM; 3 Co/7 Ni/1.5 Co), exchange coupling spacer layer (9.5 Ru) and upper FM layer (UM; 3.5 Co/7 Ni/3 Co). All thicknesses are given in angstroms. c, Schematic illustrations of DW initialization and injection at a FM–SAF junction. By applying an external magnetic field Hz along the perpendicular magnetic easy-axis opposite to the initial orientation of the moment of the lower layer (LM; left), the DW is readily generated in the FM region at the junction (bottom). After initialization, the DW is injected into the SAF region by a single current pulse with a current density \(J > J_{{\mathrm{th}}}^{{\mathrm{FM \to SAF}}}\) (right).
