Control and tunability of magnetic bubble states in multilayers with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy at ambient conditions

The reversal of magnetic bubble helicity through topologically trivial transient states provides an additional degree of freedom that promises the development of multidimensional magnetic memories. A key requirement for this concept is the stabilization of bubble states at ambient conditions on application-compatible substrates. In the present work, we demonstrate a stabilization routine for remanent bubble states in high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy [Co(0.44 nm)/Pt(0.7 nm)](X), X = 48, 100, and 150 multilayers on Si/SiO2 substrates by exploring the effect of external magnetic fields (H-m) of different strength and angles (theta) with respect to the film surface normal. By systematic variation of these two parameters, we demonstrate that remanent bubble density and mean bubble diameter can be carefully tuned and optimized for each sample. Our protocol based on magnetometry only reveals the densest remanent bubble states at H-m = 0.87H(s) (H-s is the magnetic saturation field) and theta = 60 degrees-75 degrees for all X with a maximum of 3700 domains/100 mu m(2) for the X = 48 sample. The experimental observations are supported by micromagnetic simulations, taking into account the nanoscale lateral grain structure of multilayers synthesized by magnetron sputter deposition, and thus helping to understand the different densities of the bubble states found in these systems.