Gaurav Rana et al, Physical Review Applied 13, 044079 (2020) get the file

This work is a collaboration between the Laboratoire Charles Coulomb in Montpellier, France, Spintec and the Institut Néel, in Grenoble, France, the Laboratoire des Sciences des Procédés et des Matériaux in Villetaneuse, France and the Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and the Peter Grünberg Institute in Jülich, Germany.

We report on the stabilization of magnetic skyrmions at zero external magnetic field owing to the exchange bias at the interface between a ferromagnetic Co/Py layer and an antiferromagnetic IrMn layer. This is achieved by a careful optimization of the sample stack, its characterization using Brillouin light scattering and scanning transmission electron microscopy and the imaging of the magnetic state by magnetic force microscopy and NV center magnetometry.