Abstract
Whereas a great deal of work is being devoted to magnetic singularities in two-dimensional (2D) systems (surfaces, interfaces, films) due to their possible applications, much less is known about their properties along the perpendicular direction. Here, we report on a pronounced asymmetry of the in-depth distribution of meronlike magnetic textures, which are magnetic singularities similar to \textonehalf{} skyrmions, in magnetic layers. Meron textures are observed to be distributed in two groups defined by their topology. One of them resides almost exclusively at the top surface of the film and the other at the bottom one. This observation has been brought to light with element-specific magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy. Micromagnetic simulations reveal that closure domains are at the origin of this asymmetry. The result might be of general interest for controlling magnetic three-dimensional (3D) architectures.
Highlights
Magnetic singularities in thin films are a subject of intense research since their stability is appropriate for applications in transport of information in magnetic devices
We report on a pronounced asymmetry of the in-depth distribution of meronlike magnetic textures, which are magnetic singularities similar to 1⁄2 skyrmions, in magnetic layers
One of them resides almost exclusively at the top surface of the film and the other at the bottom one. This observation has been brought to light with element-specific magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy
Summary
Magnetic singularities in thin films are a subject of intense research since their stability is appropriate for applications in transport of information in magnetic devices. We have concentrated on the direction perpendicular to the interfaces since vertical coupling mechanisms are fundamental for the design of three-dimensional (3D) magnetic devices [20,21,22] As it will be described below, a strong asymmetry in the propagation of meronlike magnetic defects across a multilayer film was observed. The relatively large probing depth (more than 100 nm) and the atom-specific magnetic dichroic images acquired at different angles allowed us to show that the top and bottom surfaces of the films present meronlike textures with different topological characteristics This finding has been rationalized with two selection rules which might be of general use for the control of 3D magnetic architectures
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