Magnetic vortices are topological spin structures frequently found in ferromagnets, yet novel to antiferromagnets. By combining experiment and theory, we demonstrate that in a nanostructured antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic NiO(111)-Fe(110) bilayer, a magnetic vortex is naturally stabilized by magnetostatic interactions in the ferromagnet and is imprinted onto the adjacent antiferromagnet via interface exchange coupling. We use micromagnetic simulations to construct a corresponding phase diagram of the stability of the imprinted antiferromagnetic vortex state. Our in depth analysis reveals that the interplay between interface exchange coupling and the antiferromagnet magnetic anisotropy plays a crucial role in locally reorienting the N\'eel vector out-of-plane in the prototypical in-plane antiferromagnet NiO and thereby stabilizing the vortices in the antiferromagnet.
@article{arxiv.2403.05151,
title = {Imprinting of Antiferromagnetic Vortex States in NiO-Fe Nanostructures},
author = {M. Ślęzak and T. Wagner and V. K. Bharadwaj and O. Gomonay and A. Kozioł-Rachwał and T. O. Menteş and A. Locatelli and M. Zając and D. Wilgocka-Ślęzak and P. Dróżdż and T. Ślęzak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.05151},
year = {2024}
}