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Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy

The compass-type anisotropy appears naturally in diverse physical contexts with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as transition metal oxides and cold atomic gases etc, and it has been receiving substantial attention. Motivated by recent studies and particularly recent experimental observations o...

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Autores principales: Chen, J. P., Zhang, Dan-Wei, Liu, J. -M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4932608/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27377149
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep29126
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author Chen, J. P.
Zhang, Dan-Wei
Liu, J. -M.
author_facet Chen, J. P.
Zhang, Dan-Wei
Liu, J. -M.
author_sort Chen, J. P.
collection PubMed
description The compass-type anisotropy appears naturally in diverse physical contexts with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as transition metal oxides and cold atomic gases etc, and it has been receiving substantial attention. Motivated by recent studies and particularly recent experimental observations on helimagnet MnGe, we investigate the critical roles of this compass-type anisotropy in modulating various spin textures of chiral magnets with strong SOC, by Monte Carlo simulations based on a classical Heisenberg spin model with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction and compass anisotropy. A phase diagram with emergent spin orders in the space of compass anisotropy and out-of-plane magnetic field is presented. In this phase diagram, we propose that a hybrid super-crystal structure consisting of alternating half-skyrmion and half-anti-skyrmion is the possible zero-field ground state of MnGe. The simulated evolution of the spin structure driven by magnetic field is in good accordance with experimental observations on MnGe. Therefore, this Heisenberg spin model successfully captures the main physics responsible for the magnetic structures in MnGe, and the present work may also be instructive to research on the magnetic states in other systems with strong SOC.
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spelling pubmed-49326082016-07-08 Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy Chen, J. P. Zhang, Dan-Wei Liu, J. -M. Sci Rep Article The compass-type anisotropy appears naturally in diverse physical contexts with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as transition metal oxides and cold atomic gases etc, and it has been receiving substantial attention. Motivated by recent studies and particularly recent experimental observations on helimagnet MnGe, we investigate the critical roles of this compass-type anisotropy in modulating various spin textures of chiral magnets with strong SOC, by Monte Carlo simulations based on a classical Heisenberg spin model with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction and compass anisotropy. A phase diagram with emergent spin orders in the space of compass anisotropy and out-of-plane magnetic field is presented. In this phase diagram, we propose that a hybrid super-crystal structure consisting of alternating half-skyrmion and half-anti-skyrmion is the possible zero-field ground state of MnGe. The simulated evolution of the spin structure driven by magnetic field is in good accordance with experimental observations on MnGe. Therefore, this Heisenberg spin model successfully captures the main physics responsible for the magnetic structures in MnGe, and the present work may also be instructive to research on the magnetic states in other systems with strong SOC. Nature Publishing Group 2016-07-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4932608/ /pubmed/27377149 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep29126 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Chen, J. P.
Zhang, Dan-Wei
Liu, J. -M.
Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy
title Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy
title_full Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy
title_fullStr Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy
title_full_unstemmed Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy
title_short Exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy
title_sort exotic skyrmion crystals in chiral magnets with compass anisotropy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4932608/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27377149
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep29126
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