Effect of chemical substitution on the skyrmion phase in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions have been the focus of intense research due to their unique qualities which result from their topological protections. Previous work on Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$, the only known insulating multiferroic skyrmion material, has shown that chemical substitution alters the skyrmion phase. We chemically substitute Zn, Ag, and S into powdered Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$ to study the effect on the magnetic phase diagram. In both the Ag and the S substitutions, we find that the skyrmion phase is stabilized over a larger temperature range, as determined via magnetometry and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Meanwhile, while previous magnetometry characterization suggests two high temperature skyrmion phases in the Zn-substituted sample, SANS reveals the high temperature phase to be skyrmionic while we are unable to distinguish the other from helical order. Overall, chemical substitution weakens helical and skyrmion order as inferred from neutron scattering of the $|$q$|\approx$ 0.01 ${\mathring{A}}^{-1}$ magnetic peak.

12 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Physical Review B

References in corpus (11)

• Spontaneous Skyrmion Ground States in Magnetic Metals
• A new class of chiral materials hosting magnetic skyrmions beyond room temperature
• Long wavelength helimagnetic order and skyrmion lattice phase in Cu2OSeO3
• Formation and rotation of skyrmion crystal in the chiral-lattice insulator Cu2OSeO3
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• Symmetry breaking, slow relaxation dynamics, and topological defects at the field-induced helix reorientation in MnSi
• Thermodynamic evidence of a second skyrmion lattice phase and tilted conical phase in Cu${}_2$0SeO${}_3$
• Reorientations, relaxations, metastabilities and multidomains of skyrmion lattices
• Measuring the Formation Energy Barrier of Skyrmions in Zinc Substituted Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Increasing the skyrmion stability in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$ by chemical substitution
• Pinning of Helimagnetic Phase Transitions in Zn-Substituted Skyrmion Host Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Observation of magnetic skyrmion lattice in Cr${}_{0.82}$Mn${}_{0.18}$Ge by small-angle neutron scattering
• Investigations of the size distribution and magnetic properties of nanoparticles of Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$