Effective Spin Meron Pairs In Ferromagnetic Multilayers

We report on pairs of diverging/converging spin vortices in Co/Rh/Ni81Fe19 trilayer disks. The lateral magnetization distribution of these effective spin merons is imaged directly by means of element-selective x-ray microscopy. By this method, both the divergence and circulation states of the individual layers are identified as antisymmetric. Reversal measurements on corresponding continuous films reveal that biquadratic interlayer exchange coupling is the origin for the formation of effective meron pairs. Furthermore, their three-dimensional magnetization structure is determined by micromagnetic simulations. Interestingly, the magnetic induction follows a kind of flux-closing torus. This toroidal topology enforces a symmetry break, which ties the core polarities to the divergence configuration.