Binding a hopfion in a chiral magnet nanodisk

Hopfions are three-dimensional (3D) topological textures characterized by the integer Hopf invariant QH. Here we present the realization of a zero-field, stable hopfion spin texture in a magnetic system consisting of a chiral magnet nanodisk sandwiched by two films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The preimages of the spin texture and numerical calculations of QH show that the hopfion has QH=1. Furthermore, another nontrivial state that includes a monopole-antimonopole pair (MAP) is also stabilized in this system. By applying an external magnetic field, hopfion and MAP states with the same polarization can be switched between each other. The topological transition between the hopfion and the MAP state involves a creation (annihilation) of the MAP and twist of the preimages. Our work paves the way to study nontrivial 3D topological spin textures and stimulates more investigations in the field of 3D spintronics.