Room temperature skyrmion ground state stabilized through interlayer exchange coupling

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.