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Among topological solitons, magnetic skyrmions are two-dimensional particle-like objects with a continuous winding of the magnetization, and magnetic Hopfions are three-dimensional objects that can be formed from a closed loop of twisted skyrmion strings. Theoretical models suggest that magnetic Hopfions can be stabilized in frustrated or chiral magnetic systems, and target skymions can be transformed into Hopfions by adapting their perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, but their experimental verification has been elusive so far. Here, we present an experimental study of magnetic Hopfions that are created in Ir/Co/Pt multilayers shaped into nanoscale disks, known to host target skyrmions. To characterize three-dimensional spin textures that distinguish Hopfions from target skyrmions magnetic images are recorded with surface-sensitive X-ray photoemission electron microscopy and bulk-sensitive soft X-ray transmission microscopy using element-specific X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effects as magnetic contrast. These results could stimulate further investigations of Hopfions and their potential application in three-dimensional spintronics devices.

Target Skyrmions (TSks) are extended topological spin textures with a constant chirality where the rotation of the z component of the magnetization is larger than π. TSks have topological charge 1 or 0, if the z component of the magnetization Mz goes through a rotation of nπwhere n is an odd or even integer, respectively. TSks with a rotation of the z component of up to 4πhave been imaged via high spatial resolution element-specific X-ray imaging. The TSks were generated by weakly coupling 30 nm thin Permalloy (Ni80Fe20, PY) disks with a 1 μm diameter to asymmetric (Ir 1 nm/Co 1.5 nm/Pt 1 nm) × 7 multilayers that exhibit Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The PY disks stabilize the TSks in the multilayers due to reduced stray field energy and enforced circular symmetry from pinning of domain walls at the edges of the disks. Upon applying external magnetic fields, it is the skyrmion core at the center that ensures stability of the TSk, whereas the collapse of the extended structures in the TSk does not depend on the topological charge.

Solid ferromagnetic materials are rigid in shape and cannot be reconfigured. Ferrofluids, although reconfigurable, are paramagnetic at room temperature and lose their magnetization when the applied magnetic field is removed. Here, we show a reversible paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic transformation of ferrofluid droplets by the jamming of a monolayer of magnetic nanoparticles assembled at the water-oil interface. These ferromagnetic liquid droplets exhibit a finite coercivity and remanent magnetization. They can be easily reconfigured into different shapes while preserving the magnetic properties of solid ferromagnets with classic north-south dipole interactions. Their translational and rotational motions can be actuated remotely and precisely by an external magnetic field, inspiring studies on active matter, energy-dissipative assemblies, and programmable liquid constructs.

Magnetic monopoles, proposed as elementary particles that act as isolated magnetic south and north poles, have long attracted research interest as magnetic analogs to electric charge. In solid-state physics, a classical analog to these elusive particles has emerged as topological excitations within pyrochlore spin ice systems. We present the first real-time imaging of emergent magnetic monopole motion in a macroscopically degenerate artificial spin ice system consisting of thermally activated Ising-type nanomagnets lithographically arranged onto a pre-etched silicon substrate. A real-space characterization of emergent magnetic monopoles within the framework of Debye-Hückel theory is performed, providing visual evidence that these topological defects act like a plasma of Coulomb-type magnetic charges. In contrast to vertex defects in a purely two-dimensional artificial square ice, magnetic monopoles are free to evolve within a divergence-free vacuum, a magnetic Coulomb phase, for which features in the form of pinch-point singularities in magnetic structure factors are observed.

We use nano disk arrays with square and honeycomb symmetry to investigate magnetic phases and spin correlations of XY dipolar systems at the micro scale. Utilizing magnetization sensitive X-ray photoemission electron microscopy, we probe magnetic ground states and the "order-by-disorder" phenomenon predicted 30 years ago. We observe the antiferromagnetic striped ground state in square lattices, and 6-fold symmetric structures, including trigonal vortex lattices and disordered floating vortices, in the honeycomb lattice. The spin frustration in the honeycomb lattice causes a phase transition from a long-range ordered locked phase over a floating phase with quasi long-range order and indications of a Berezinskii-Thouless-Kosterlitz-like character, to the thermally excited paramagnetic state. Absent spatial correlation and quasi periodic switching of isolated vortices in the quasi long-range ordered phase suggest a degeneracy of the vortex circulation.

Inversion symmetry breaking has become a vital research area in modern magnetism with phenomena including the Rashba effect, spin Hall effect, and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI)-a vector spin exchange. The latter one may stabilize chiral spin textures with topologically nontrivial properties, such as Skyrmions. So far, chiral spin textures have mainly been studied in helimagnets and thin ferromagnets with heavy-element capping. Here, the concept of chirality driven by interfacial DMI is generalized to complex multicomponent systems and demonstrated on the example of chiral ferrimagnetism in amorphous GdCo films. Utilizing Lorentz microscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy, and tailoring thickness, capping, and rare-earth composition, reveal that 2 nm thick GdCo films preserve ferrimagnetism and stabilize chiral domain walls. The type of chiral domain walls depends on the rare-earth composition/saturation magnetization, enabling a possible temperature control of the intrinsic properties of ferrimagnetic domain walls.