Realization of Ordered Magnetic Skyrmions in Thin Films at Ambient Conditions

Ryan D. Desautels, Lisa DeBeer-Schmitt, Sergio Montoya, Julie A. Borchers, Soong-Geun Je, Nan Tang, Mi-Young Im, Michael R. Fitzsimmons, Eric E. Fullerton, Dustin A. Gilbert

Published 2019-04-30Version 1

Magnetic skyrmions present interesting physics due to their topological nature and hold significant promise for future information technologies. A key barrier to realizing skyrmion devices has been stabilizing these spin structures under ambient conditions. In this manuscript, we exploit the tunable magnetic properties of amorphous Fe/Gd mulitlayers to realize skyrmion lattices which are stable over a large temperature and magnetic field parameter space, including room temperature and zero magnetic field. These hybrid skyrmions have both Bloch-type and N\'eel-type character and are stabilized by dipolar interactions rather than Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, which are typically considered required for the generation of skyrmions. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) was used in combination with soft X-ray microscopy to provide a unique, multi-scale probe of the local and long-range order of these structures. These results identify a pathway to engineer controllable skyrmion phases in thin film geometries which are stable at ambient conditions.