Simulating anti-skyrmions on a lattice

Criado, Juan C.; Schenk, Sebastian; Spannowsky, Michael; Hatton, Peter D.; Turnbull, L.A.

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin structures that naturally emerge in magnetic materials. While a vast amount of effort has gone into the study of their properties, their counterpart of opposite topological charge, the anti-skyrmion, has not received as much attention. We aim to close this gap by deploying Monte Carlo simulations of spin-lattice systems in order to investigate which interactions support anti-skyrmions, as well as skyrmions of Bloch and Ne´el type. We find that the combination of ferromagnetic exchange and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions is able to stabilize each of the three types, depending on the specific structure of the DM interactions. Considering a three-dimensional spin lattice model, we provide a finite-temperature phase diagram featuring a stable anti-skyrmion lattice phase for a large range of temperatures. In addition, we also shed light on the creation and annihilation processes of these anti-skyrmion tubes and study the effects of the DM interaction strength on their typical size.

Citation

Criado, J. C., Schenk, S., Spannowsky, M., Hatton, P. D., & Turnbull, L. (2022). Simulating anti-skyrmions on a lattice. Scientific Reports, 12, Article 19179. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22043-0

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 7, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Nov 10, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Oct 13, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 21, 2022
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Article Number: 19179
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22043-0