Compact merons and skyrmions in thin chiral magnetic films
- Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, 113-8656 (Japan)
A meron is a controversial topological excitation because it carries just one-half of the skyrmion number. A vortex in thin magnetic films has been argued to be a half-skyrmion, i.e., a meron. We present another type of merons, investigating the two-dimensional nonlinear sigma model together with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Here, the vortex number of a meron is zero. Basic topological excitations are merons and skyrmions. They behave as if they were free particles. A prominent feature is that the topological charge density is strictly confined within compact domains. We propose an analytic approach for these compact excitations, and construct a phase diagram. It is comprised of the helix, meron, skyrmion-crystal, skyrmion-gas, and ferromagnet phases. It captures the essential nature of the experimental data recently performed in chiral magnets such as MnSi and FeCoSi thin films.
- OSTI ID:
- 21538186
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.83.100408; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1098-0121
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CAPTURE
CHARGE DENSITY
CHIRALITY
CRYSTALS
EXCITATION
INTERACTIONS
MAGNETS
MANGANESE SILICIDES
MERONS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PHASE DIAGRAMS
SIGMA MODEL
SIMULATION
SKYRME POTENTIAL
SOLITONS
THIN FILMS
TOPOLOGY
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VORTICES
BOSON-EXCHANGE MODELS
DIAGRAMS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EQUIPMENT
FILMS
INFORMATION
MANGANESE COMPOUNDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICS
NUCLEON-NUCLEON POTENTIAL
PARTICLE MODELS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PERIPHERAL MODELS
POTENTIALS
QUASI PARTICLES
SILICIDES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS