Densely packed skyrmions stabilized at zero magnetic field by indirect exchange coupling in multilayers

Abstract: Room-temperature stabilization of skyrmions in magnetic multilayered systems is the result of a fine balance between different magnetic interactions namely symmetric and antisymmetric exchange, dipolar, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy as well as, in most cases, Zeeman through an applied external field. Such field-driven stabilization approach is not compatible with most of the anticipated skyrmion based applications, e.g. skyrmion memories, logic or neuromorphic computing which motivates a reduction or a cancellation of field requirements. Here we present a method to stabilize at room-temperature and zero-field, a densely packed skyrmion phase in ferromagnetic multilayers with moderate number of repetitions. To this aim, we finely tune the multilayer parameters to stabilize a dense skyrmion phase. Then, relying on the interlayer electronic coupling to an adjacent bias magnetic layer with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and uniform magnetization, we demonstrate the stabilization of sub-60 nm diameter skyrmion at zero-field with adjustable skyrmion density.