Whereas a great deal of work is being devoted to magnetic singularities in two-dimensional (2D) systems (surfaces, interfaces, films) due to their possible applications, much less is known about their properties along the perpendicular direction. Here, we report on a pronounced asymmetry of the in-depth distribution of meronlike magnetic textures, which are magnetic singularities similar to ½ skyrmions, in magnetic layers. Meron textures are observed to be distributed in two groups defined by their topology. One of them resides almost exclusively at the top surface of the film and the other at the bottom one. This observation has been brought to light with element-specific magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy. Micromagnetic simulations reveal that closure domains are at the origin of this asymmetry. The result might be of general interest for controlling magnetic three-dimensional (3D) architectures.

• Received 16 September 2016
• Revised 19 December 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.014430