Coupled vortex pairs in magnetic multilayer elements

Spin vortices have attracted much attention due to their chiral nature and the variety of dynamic phenomena that they exhibit. In this contribution we present experimental findings on vortex coupling in trilayer elements, where two ferromagnetic layers are separated by a nonmagnetic interlayer. For such systems the relative configurations of the in-plane flux rotation senses (circulations) as well as the core orientations (polarities) of vortex pairs are identified by means of scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM). The relevant coupling mechanisms here are the magneto-dipolar interaction and interlayer exchange coupling (IEC). Remarkably, a modification of the IEC, which can be induced by ion irradiation, allows to set the circulation configuration of a layered vortex pair to be either antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic. In addition, time-resolved measurements of the response of interlayer coupled vortex pairs to an excitation by external magnetic fields will be shown.