Elliptical Bloch skyrmion chiral twins in an antiskyrmion system

Jena J, Goebel B, Ma T, Kumar V, Saha R, Mertig I, Felser C, Parkin SSP (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Nature Communications Nature Publishing Group: Nature Communications

Book Volume: 11

Article Number: 1115

Journal Issue: 1

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14925-6

Abstract

Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are distinct topological chiral spin textures that have been observed in various material systems depending on the symmetry of the crystal structure. Here we show, using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, that arrays of skyrmions can be stabilized in a tetragonal inverse Heusler with D2d symmetry whose Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) otherwise supports antiskyrmions. These skyrmions can be distinguished from those previously found in several B20 systems which have only one chirality and are circular in shape. We find Bloch-type elliptical skyrmions with opposite chiralities whose major axis is oriented along two specific crystal directions: [010] and [100]. These structures are metastable over a wide temperature range and we show that they are stabilized by long-range dipole-dipole interactions. The possibility of forming two distinct chiral spin textures with opposite topological charges of ±1 in one material makes the family of D2d materials exceptional.

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik (MSP) / Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics DE Germany (DE) Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe (MPI CPfS) / Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Jena, J., Goebel, B., Ma, T., Kumar, V., Saha, R., Mertig, I.,... Parkin, S.S.P. (2020). Elliptical Bloch skyrmion chiral twins in an antiskyrmion system. Nature Communications, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14925-6

MLA:

Jena, Jagannath, et al. "Elliptical Bloch skyrmion chiral twins in an antiskyrmion system." Nature Communications 11.1 (2020).

BibTeX: Download