Enhanced Stability of Skyrmions in Two-Dimensional Chiral Magnets with Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling

Abstract

Recent developments have led to an explosion of activity on skyrmions in three-dimensional (3D) chiral magnets. Experiments have directly probed these topological spin textures, revealed their nontrivial properties, and led to suggestions for novel applications. However, in 3D the skyrmion crystal phase is observed only in a narrow region of the temperature-field phase diagram. We show here, using a general analysis based on symmetry, that skyrmions are much more readily stabilized in two-dimensional (2D) systems with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. This enhanced stability arises from the competition between field and easy-plane magnetic anisotropy and results in a nontrivial structure in the topological charge density in the core of the skyrmions. We further show that, in a variety of microscopic models for magnetic exchange, the required easy-plane anisotropy naturally arises from the same spin-orbit coupling that is responsible for the chiral Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Our results are of particular interest for 2D materials like thin films, surfaces, and oxide interfaces, where broken surface-inversion symmetry and Rashba spin-orbit coupling naturally lead to chiral exchange and easy-plane compass anisotropy. Our theory gives a clear direction for experimental studies of 2D magnetic materials to stabilize skyrmions over a large range of magnetic fields down to T=0.

10 pages, 5 figures, published version

References in corpus (12)

• Spontaneous Skyrmion Ground States in Magnetic Metals
• Magnetic effects at the interface between nonmagnetic oxides
• Skyrmions and Anomalous Hall Effect in a Dzyloshinskii-Moriya Spiral Magnet
• Robust formation of skyrmions and topological Hall effect in epitaxial thin films of MnSi
• Chiral skyrmions in cubic helimagnet films: the role of uniaxial anisotropy
• Theory of the helical spin crystal: a candidate for the partially ordered state of MnSi
• Bose Hubbard Models with Synthetic Spin-Orbit Coupling: Mott Insulators, Spin Textures and Superfluidity
• Exotic quantum spin models in spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulators
• Formation of a topological non-Fermi liquid in MnSi
• Real-Space and Reciprocal-Space Berry Phases in the Hall Effect of Mn${}_{1-\mathrm{x}}$Fe${}_{\mathrm{x}}$Si
• Carrier-controlled ferromagnetism in SrTiO3
• Phenomenology of current-skyrmion interactions in thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Cited by in corpus (95)

• Interface-driven topological Hall effect in SrRuO${}_3$-SrIrO${}_3$ bilayer
• Magnetic structure and phase stability of the van der Waals bonded ferromagnet Fe3-xGeTe2
• Skyrmion fractionalization and merons in chiral magnets with easy-plane anisotropy
• Néel-type skyrmion lattice in tetragonal polar magnet VOSe${}_2$O${}_5$
• Intrinsic skyrmions in monolayer Janus magnets
• Thermal Hall Effect Induced by Magnon-Phonon Interactions
• Chiral spin-wave velocities induced by all-garnet interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in ultrathin yttrium iron garnet films
• Antiferromagnetic Spin Wave Field-Effect Transistor
• Topological spin crystals by itinerant frustration
• Asymmetric spin-wave dispersion due to Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in an ultrathin Pt/CoFeB film
• Kondo Breakdown in Topological Kondo Insulators
• Quantized Transport for a Skyrmion Moving on a Two-Dimensional Periodic Substrate
• Skyrmions in Chiral Magnets with Rashba and Dresselhaus Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Néel- and Bloch-Type Magnetic Vortices in Rashba Metals
• Tunable Magnonic Thermal Hall Effect in Skyrmion Crystal Phases of Ferrimagnets
• Giant Topological Hall Effect in van der Waals Heterostructures of CrTe2/Bi2Te3
• Stability of skyrmion lattices and symmetries of quasi-two-dimensional chiral magnets
• Edge instabilities and skyrmion creation in magnetic layers
• Spin-Hall Topological Hall Effect in Highly Tunable Pt/Ferrimagnetic-Insulator Bilayers
• Asymmetric isolated skyrmions in polar magnets with easy-plane anisotropy
• Skyrmions in twisted van der Waals magnets
• Chiral Bobbers and Skyrmions in Epitaxial FeGe/Si(111) Films
• Degeneracy Lifting of Néel, Bloch, and Anti-Skyrmion Crystals in Centrosymmetric Tetragonal Systems
• Skyrmions and antiskyrmions in quasi-two-dimensional magnets
• Topological Hall Effect and Emergent Skyrmion Crystal in Manganite-Iridate Oxide Interfaces
• Effective spin model in momentum space: Toward a systematic understanding of multiple-$Q$ instability by momentum-resolved anisotropic exchange interactions
• Comparing skyrmions and merons in chiral liquid crystals and magnets
• Quantum Dynamics of Skyrmions in Chiral Magnets
• Nonabelian magnonics in antiferromagnets
• Dynamical and Reversible Control of Topological Spin Textures
• Multifunctional Two-dimensional van der Waals Janus Magnet Cr-based Dichalcogenide Halides
• Topological Hall Effect in a Topological Insulator Interfaced with a Magnetic Insulator
• Spin responses and effective Hamiltonian for the two dimensional electron gas at oxide interface {LaAlO}${}_3$/{SrTiO}${}_3$
• Skyrmions in square-lattice antiferromagnets
• The dynamics of bimeron skyrmions in easy-plane magnets induced by a spin supercurrent
• Theory of helicoids and skyrmions in confined cholesteric liquid crystals
• Umbilic Lines in Orientational Order
• Degeneracies and fluctuations of Néèl skyrmions in confined geometries
• Theory of skyrmion, meron, anti-skyrmion and anti-meron in chiral magnets
• Stability and dynamics of in-plane skyrmions in collinear ferromagnets
• Stabilization mechanisms of magnetic skyrmion crystal and multiple-$Q$ states based on momentum-resolved spin interactions
• Oscillatory Non-collinear Magnetism Induced by Interfacial Charge Transfer in Metallic Oxide Superlattices
• Robust skyrmion-bubble textures in SrRuO${}_3$ thin films stabilized by magnetic anisotropy
• Pattern formation in skyrmionic materials with anisotropic environments
• Exploring the origins of the Dzyalloshinski-Moria interaction in MnSi
• Rashba-Zener mechanism for nanoscale skyrmions and topological metals
• New Microscopic Magnetic Hamiltonian for Exotic Spin Textures in Metals
• Antiferromagnetic Skyrmions and Skyrmion Density Wave in Rashba Hund's Insulator
• Vison crystals, chiral and crystalline phases in the Yao-Lee model
• Robust formation of nanoscale magnetic skyrmions in easy-plane thin film multilayers with low damping
• Ferroaxial moment induced by vortex spin texture
• Multiple-$Q$ magnetic orders in Rashba-Dresselhaus metals
• Theoretical investigation of antiferromagnetic skyrmions in a triangular monolayer
• Skyrmionic magnetization configurations at chiral magnet/ferromagnet heterostructures
• Engineering antiferromagnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions at metallic interfaces
• Tunable skyrmion-skyrmion binding on the surface of a topological insulator
• Skyrmion lattice in centrosymmetric magnets with local Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction
• Helical and skyrmion lattice phases in three-dimensional chiral magnets: Effect of anisotropic interactions
• Theoretical models of Rashba spin splitting in asymmetric SrTiO3-based heterostructures
• Stabilization of the skyrmion crystal phase in thin-film antiferromagnets
• Room-Temperature Magnetic Skyrmions in Pt/Co/Cu Multilayers
• Resonant optical topological Hall conductivity from skyrmions
• Enhancing Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy in Garnet Ferrimagnet by Interfacing with Few-Layer WTe2
• Heisenberg-exchange-free nanoskyrmion mosaic
• Thermal Hall effect from two-dimensional Schwinger-boson gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction: application to ferromagnets with in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
• Finsler geometry modeling and Monte Carlo study of skyrmion shape deformation by uniaxial stress
• Thermal Hall Effect of Chiral Spin Fluctuations
• Magnetoentropic mapping and computational modeling of cycloids and skyrmions in the lacunar spinels GaV${}_4$S${}_8$ and GaV${}_4$Se${}_8$
• Phase diagram of the two-dimensional dipolar Heisenberg model with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the Ising anisotropy
• Longitudinal Spin Seebeck effect in Pyrochlore Iridates with Bulk and Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
• Quantifying symmetric exchange in ultrathin ferromagnetic films with chirality
• Electric-field-induced formation and annihilation of skyrmions in two-dimensional magnet
• The higher-order magnetic skyrmions in non-uniform magnetic fields
• Electrically tunable Gilbert damping in van der Waals heterostructures of two-dimensional ferromagnetic metals and ferroelectrics
• Skyrmion crystal under $D_{3h}$ point group: Role of out-of-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
• Meron configurations in easy-plane chiral magnets
• Antiskyrmions and Bloch Skyrmions in Magnetic Dresselhaus Metals
• Spin-orbit effects surfacing on manganites
• Magnetic Skyrmionic Polarons
• Chiral-induced switching of antiferromagnet spins in a confined nanowire
• Tunable skyrmion crystals and topological quantum oscillations in magnetic metals
• Topological meron-antimeron domain walls and skyrmions in a low-symmetry system
• Nontrivial topology and localization in the double exchange model with possible applications to perovskite manganites
• MnSi-nanostructures obtained from thin films: magnetotransport and Hall effect
• Incommensurate spin density wave as a signature of spin-orbit coupling
• Tailoring magnetic interactions in atomic bilayers of Rh and Fe on Re(0001)
• Anomalous magnetoentropic response of skrymion crystals
• Searching for activated transitions in complex magnetic systems
• Magnetic Skyrmions: from lumps to supercompactons
• Tuning the Chern number and Berry curvature with spin-orbit coupling and magnetic textures
• Role of isotropic and anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on skyrmions, merons and antiskyrmions in the $C_{nv}$ symmetric system
• Topological transition in spectrum of skyrmion crystal with uniaxial anisotropy
• Charge ordering and spontaneous topological Hall effect in bilayer skyrmion crystals
• Magneto-Optical Analysis of Magnetic Anisotropy in Ultrathin Tm${}_3$Fe${}_5$O${}_{12}$/Pt Bilayers
• Interplay of electric and magnetic fields in skyrmion phases of the classical Heisenberg model on a square lattice