title: Interlayer Exchange Coupling: A General Scheme Turning Chiral Magnets into Magnetic Multilayers Carrying Atomic-Scale Skyrmions.
abstract: We report on a general principle using interlayer exchange coupling to extend the regime of chiral magnetic films in which stable or metastable magnetic Skyrmions can appear at a zero magnetic field. We verify this concept on the basis of a first-principles model for a Mn monolayer on a W(001) substrate, a prototype chiral magnet for which the atomic-scale magnetic texture is determined by the frustration of exchange interactions, impossible to unwind by laboratory magnetic fields. By means of ab initio calculations for the Mn/W_{m}/Co_{n}/Pt/W(001) multilayer system we show that for certain thicknesses m of the W spacer and n of the Co reference layer, the effective field of the reference layer fully substitutes the required magnetic field for Skyrmion formation.
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Ashis Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Nandy
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Nikolai S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Kiselev
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Blügel