February 11, 2009 | S. Mühlbauer, B. Binz, F. Jonietz, C. Pfleiderer, A. Rosch, A. Neubauer, R. Georgii, P. Böni
A skyrmion lattice was observed in the chiral magnet MnSi using neutron scattering. The lattice consists of magnetic vortices, or skyrmion lines, which form a hexagonal structure perpendicular to a small applied magnetic field. This structure is stable at the boundary between paramagnetism and long-range helimagnetic order, regardless of the magnetic field direction relative to the atomic lattice. The study demonstrates that magnetic materials lacking inversion symmetry can support new forms of crystalline order composed of topologically stable spin states.
The formation of crystals involves three main mechanisms: local repulsions and long-range attractions leading to isotropic correlations, three-particle collisions lowering energy, and quantization of atoms in a unit cell. In magnetic materials, these mechanisms are typically not present. However, topologically stable objects like skyrmions, hedgehogs, and merons can act as quantized entities, similar to atoms in a crystal. These objects may form novel electronic orders, akin to crystal structures, but experimental evidence for such structures is limited.
In MnSi, a hexagonal magnetic structure was observed perpendicular to a small applied magnetic field. This structure can be described as a superposition of three helical states, with the lowest energy state resembling a lattice of antiskyrmion lines. All three mechanisms play a role in explaining the magnetic structure. The lack of inversion symmetry in MnSi leads to weak spin-orbit coupling, which allows magnetic structures to decouple efficiently from the atomic lattice.
In the presence of an external magnetic field, three-particle interactions of magnetic excitations occur. Skyrmion lines, which are topologically protected knots in the magnetic structure, take over the role of atoms in usual crystals. At ambient pressure and zero applied magnetic field, MnSi develops helical magnetic order below a critical temperature of 29.5 K, resulting from three hierarchical energy scales. The strongest scale is ferromagnetic exchange, which favors uniform spin polarization. The lack of inversion symmetry in MnSi leads to chiral spin-orbit interactions, described by the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction. The ferromagnetic exchange and chiral spin-orbit coupling lead to a spin rotation with a periodicity of approximately 190 Å, which is much larger than the lattice constant of 4.56 Å. This large separation of length scales implies an efficient decoupling of the magnetic and atomic structures.
The study was inspired by recent work on the pressure dependence of MnSi properties. An applied magnetic field unpins the helical order and aligns its wave vector parallel to the field for fields exceeding 0.1 T. This state is referred to as the conical phase. For fields exceeding 0.6 T, the effects of the DM interaction are suppressed, giving way to a spin-aligned (ferromagnetic) state. For temperatures just below 29.5 K, an additional phase, referred to as theA skyrmion lattice was observed in the chiral magnet MnSi using neutron scattering. The lattice consists of magnetic vortices, or skyrmion lines, which form a hexagonal structure perpendicular to a small applied magnetic field. This structure is stable at the boundary between paramagnetism and long-range helimagnetic order, regardless of the magnetic field direction relative to the atomic lattice. The study demonstrates that magnetic materials lacking inversion symmetry can support new forms of crystalline order composed of topologically stable spin states.
The formation of crystals involves three main mechanisms: local repulsions and long-range attractions leading to isotropic correlations, three-particle collisions lowering energy, and quantization of atoms in a unit cell. In magnetic materials, these mechanisms are typically not present. However, topologically stable objects like skyrmions, hedgehogs, and merons can act as quantized entities, similar to atoms in a crystal. These objects may form novel electronic orders, akin to crystal structures, but experimental evidence for such structures is limited.
In MnSi, a hexagonal magnetic structure was observed perpendicular to a small applied magnetic field. This structure can be described as a superposition of three helical states, with the lowest energy state resembling a lattice of antiskyrmion lines. All three mechanisms play a role in explaining the magnetic structure. The lack of inversion symmetry in MnSi leads to weak spin-orbit coupling, which allows magnetic structures to decouple efficiently from the atomic lattice.
In the presence of an external magnetic field, three-particle interactions of magnetic excitations occur. Skyrmion lines, which are topologically protected knots in the magnetic structure, take over the role of atoms in usual crystals. At ambient pressure and zero applied magnetic field, MnSi develops helical magnetic order below a critical temperature of 29.5 K, resulting from three hierarchical energy scales. The strongest scale is ferromagnetic exchange, which favors uniform spin polarization. The lack of inversion symmetry in MnSi leads to chiral spin-orbit interactions, described by the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction. The ferromagnetic exchange and chiral spin-orbit coupling lead to a spin rotation with a periodicity of approximately 190 Å, which is much larger than the lattice constant of 4.56 Å. This large separation of length scales implies an efficient decoupling of the magnetic and atomic structures.
The study was inspired by recent work on the pressure dependence of MnSi properties. An applied magnetic field unpins the helical order and aligns its wave vector parallel to the field for fields exceeding 0.1 T. This state is referred to as the conical phase. For fields exceeding 0.6 T, the effects of the DM interaction are suppressed, giving way to a spin-aligned (ferromagnetic) state. For temperatures just below 29.5 K, an additional phase, referred to as the