• Chen, Gong
• Schmid, Andreas K.
• Mascaraque, Arantzazu
• Ndiaye, Alpha T.

Abstract

<jats:p>Possible magnetic skyrmion device applications motivate the search for structures that extend the stability of skyrmion spin textures to ambient temperature. Here, we demonstrate an experimental approach to stabilize a room temperature skyrmion ground state in chiral magnetic films via exchange coupling across non-magnetic spacer layers. Using spin polarized low-energy electron microscopy to measure all three Cartesian components of the magnetization vector, we image the spin textures in Fe/Ni films. We show how tuning the thickness of a copper spacer layer between chiral Fe/Ni films and perpendicularly magnetized Ni layers permits stabilization of a chiral stripe phase, a skyrmion phase, and a single domain phase. This strategy to stabilize skyrmion ground states can be extended to other magnetic thin film systems and may be useful for designing skyrmion based spintronics devices.</jats:p>

Topics

• phase
• thin film
• copper
• texture
• electron microscopy
• magnetization