Device schematic, current distribution, and static measurements. a Schematic of the material stack showing the current distribution a for an ordinary NC and b a NC where the Ta/Ru cap has been ion milled into a pillar (inset shows the remaining Ta/Ru). The ion milled pillar reduces the shunt current (orange arrows) in the cap layer and forces a larger fraction of the current to go through the stack (black arrow). c Hysteresis loop of the MTJ stack before patterning, with the magnetic field applied along the in-plane easy axis. The magnetic state of the three magnetic layers (free (FL), reference (RL), and pinned layer (PL)) is depicted by the three arrows at six points along the hysteresis loop. d The resistance of the final device measured vs. magnetic field along the easy axis showing MR of 36%. Inset in d is the frequency of the uniform FMR mode of the free layer as a function of in-plane field. Red solid line is a Kittel fit to extract an effective magnetization of 1.41 T