Additive interfacial chiral interaction in multilayers for stabilization of small individual skyrmion at room temperature

Facing the ever-growing demand for data storage will most probably require a new paradigm. Nanoscale magnetic skyrmions are anticipated to solve this issue as they are arguably the smallest spin textures in magnetic thin films in nature. We designed cobalt-based multilayered thin films where the cobalt layer is sandwiched between two heavy metals providing additive interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, which reach a value close to 2 mJ m-2 in the case of the Ir|Co|Pt asymmetric multilayers. Using a magnetization-sensitive scanning x-ray transmission microscopy technique, we imaged small magnetic domains at very low field in these multilayers. The study of their behavior in perpendicular magnetic field allows us to conclude that they are actually magnetic skyrmions stabilized by the large Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. This discovery of stable sub-100 nm individual skyrmions at room temperature in a technologically relevant material opens the way for device applications in a near future.