Thermal Effect in Current-Induced Magnetization Switching and Out-of-Plane Effective Field Measurements

We study the current-induced spin–orbit torque (SOT) switching and out-of-plane (OOP) effective field in a CuPt/CoPt heterostructure. By using three measurement methods (“continuous current” mode, “pulsed current+nonequilibrium” mode, and “pulsed current+equilibrium” mode), we found their switching loops show distinct behaviors and their OOP effective fields have different dependencies on the current. Our observation identified the important role of the thermal effect in the SOT process with large current.