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Title: Ginzburg-Landau theory for skyrmions in inversion-symmetric magnets with competing interactions

Journal Article · · Physical Review B
 [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Magnetic skyrmions have attracted considerable attention recently for their huge potential in spintronic applications. Generally skyrmions are big compared to the atomic lattice constant, which allows for the Ginzburg-Landau type description in the continuum limit. This description successfully captures the main experimental observations on skyrmions in B20 compound without inversion symmetry. Skyrmions can also exist in inversion-symmetric magnets with competing interactions. Here, we derive a general Ginzburg-Landau theory for skyrmions in these magnets valid in the long-wavelength limit. We study the unusual static and dynamical properties of skyrmions based on the derived Ginzburg-Landau theory. We show that an easy axis spin anisotropy is sufficient to stabilize a skyrmion lattice. Interestingly, the skyrmion in inversion-symmetric magnets has a new internal degree of freedom associated with the rotation of helicity, i.e., the “spin” of the skyrmion as a particle, in addition to the usual translational motion of skyrmions (orbital motion). The orbital and spin degree of freedoms of an individual skyrmion can couple to each other, and give rise to unusual behavior that is absent for the skyrmions stabilized by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Finally, the derived Ginzburg-Landau theory provides a convenient and general framework to discuss skyrmion physics and will facilitate the search for skyrmions in inversion-symmetric magnets.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1249058
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1239458
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-29577; PRBMDO
Journal Information:
Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 6; ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 174 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (44)

Steering Magnetic Skyrmions with Currents: A Nonequilibrium Green's Functions Approach journal February 2019
Skyrmion dynamics in a frustrated ferromagnetic film and current-induced helicity locking-unlocking transition journal November 2017
Isolated zero field sub-10 nm skyrmions in ultrathin Co films journal August 2019
Skyrmion phase and competing magnetic orders on a breathing kagomé lattice journal December 2019
Creation and Annihilation of Skyrmions in the Frustrated Magnets with Competing Exchange Interactions journal November 2017
Theory of isolated magnetic skyrmions: From fundamentals to room temperature applications journal March 2018
Trochoidal motion and pair generation in skyrmion and antiskyrmion dynamics under spin–orbit torques journal August 2018
Writing skyrmions with a magnetic dipole journal September 2018
Frustration and chiral orderings in correlated electron systems journal July 2016
Magnetic field gradient driven dynamics of isolated skyrmions and antiskyrmions in frustrated magnets journal May 2018
BT phase diagram of Pd/Fe/Ir(111) computed with parallel tempering Monte Carlo journal October 2018
Current-Driven Dynamics of Frustrated Skyrmions in a Synthetic Antiferromagnetic Bilayer journal April 2019
Stabilty of biskyrmions in centrosymmetric magnetic films journal July 2019
Tunable skyrmion-skyrmion binding on the surface of a topological insulator journal September 2019
From skyrmions to Z 2 vortices in distorted chiral antiferromagnets journal December 2019
Field-induced pseudo-skyrmion phase in the antiferromagnetic kagome lattice journal December 2019
Stability and dynamics of in-plane skyrmions in collinear ferromagnets journal February 2020
Vortices, skyrmions, and chirality waves in frustrated Mott insulators with a quenched periodic array of impurities journal November 2016
Formation and stability of metastable skyrmionic spin structures with various topologies in an ultrathin film journal March 2017
Effect of magnetic anisotropy on skyrmions with a high topological number in itinerant magnets journal March 2019
Dynamical and Reversible Control of Topological Spin Textures journal April 2017
Magnetic Ground State Stabilized by Three-Site Interactions: Fe / Rh ( 111 ) journal May 2018
Biskyrmion lattices in centrosymmetric magnetic films journal October 2019
Skyrmion lattice with a giant topological Hall effect in a frustrated triangular-lattice magnet journal August 2019
Spiral spin structures and skyrmions in multiferroics journal September 2019
Skyrmion Crystals and Phase Transitions in Magneto-Ferroelectric Superlattices: Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya Interaction in a Frustrated J1 − J2 Model journal December 2019
B–T phase diagram of Pd/Fe/Ir(111) computed with parallel tempering Monte Carlo text January 2018
Skyrmions with attractive interactions in an ultrathin magnetic film text January 2016
Vortices, skyrmions, and chirality waves in frustrated Mott insulators with a quenched periodic array of impurities text January 2016
Formation and stability of metastable skyrmionic spin structures with various topologies in an ultrathin film text January 2016
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Spin Textures induced by Quenched Disorder in a Reentrant Spin Glass: Vortices versus "Frustrated" Skyrmions text January 2018
The dynamics of bimeron skyrmions in easy-plane magnets induced by a spin supercurrent text January 2019
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