• Accepted Paper

Magnetic microscopy of skyrmions in magnetic thin films with chiral overlayers

Buddhika Hondamuni, Théo Balland, Fabian Kammerbauer, Ashish Moharana, Bindu, Amandeep Singh, Meital Ozeri, Shira Yochelis, Yossi Paltiel, Omkar Dhungel, Zeeshawn Kazi, Kai-Mei C. Fu, Hideyuki Watanabe, Mathias Kläui, Arne Wickenbrock, Nir Bar-Gill, Angela Wittmann, and Dmitry Budker

Phys. Rev. Applied - Accepted 22 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/thmz-53f2

Abstract

Topologically nontrivial magnetic textures such as skyrmions offer promising opportunities for spintronic applications. In recent years, it has been shown that the magnetic properties of layered materials can be affected by depositing chiral molecules on the surface, while the influence of chiral overlayers on skyrmion properties such as their stability and interactions remains largely unexplored. To address this challenge, we employ wide-field nitrogen-vacancy (NV) magnetometry to directly image skyrmions in chiral-molecule-functionalized magnetic thin films, enabling quantitative mapping of magnetic stray fields over extended areas under ambient conditions. Using pixel-resolved optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) combined with controlled magnetic fields, we reproducibly nucleate and probe skyrmion states in CoFeB ferromagnetic samples, enabling quantitative investigation of their properties. We observe indications of enantioselective and magnetic-field-polarity-dependent modifications of skyrmion properties suggesting possible chirality-dependent modifications of topological spin textures and motivating future theoretical investigations of the underlying coupling mechanisms.

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