Rashba-Zener mechanism for nanoscale skyrmions and topological metals

Abstract

We report a microscopic electronic mechanism for nanoscale skyrmion formation and topological metalicity. The mechanism, which relies on combining the classic double-exchange (DE) physics with the Rashba spin orbit coupling (SOC), not only provides an accurate understanding of existence of skyrmions but also explains key features in small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) data on thin films of a variety of magnetic metals. The skyrmion states are characterized as disordered topological metals via explicit calculations of Bott index and Hall conductivity. Local density of states (LDOS) display characteristic oscillations that are shown to be arising from a combination of confinement effect and gauge-field induced Landau level physics. The presence of oscillations in LDOS, without external magnetic flux, is a direct consequence of the Rashba-Zener (RZ) mechanism. The results are based on hybrid simulations on a model that explicitly retains itinerant electronic degrees of freedom. A simple physical picture is provided via an effective short-range spin model with coupling constants that depend on electronic kinetic energy. The mechanism reported here not only opens up a new approach to understand skyrmion formation in metals, but also provides a guiding principle for discovering exotic topological metal states.

arXiv comment9 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (44)

• Skyrmion Lattice in a Chiral Magnet
• Advances in the Physics of Magnetic Skyrmions and Perspective for Technology
• Spontaneous Skyrmion Ground States in Magnetic Metals
• Blowing Magnetic Skyrmion Bubbles
• Tunable Room Temperature Magnetic Skyrmions in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt Multilayers
• Discovery of Magnetic Antiskyrmions Beyond Room Temperature in Tetragonal Heusler Materials
• Magnetic skyrmion artificial synapse for neuromorphic computing
• A new class of chiral materials hosting magnetic skyrmions beyond room temperature
• Dynamics of Skyrmion Crystals in Metallic Thin Films
• Skyrmion phase and competing magnetic orders on a breathing kagome lattice
• Nanometric square skyrmion lattice in a centrosymmetric tetragonal magnet
• Observation of stable Neel skyrmions in Co/Pd multilayers with Lorentz transmission electron microscopy
• Robust metastable skyrmions and their triangular-square lattice-structural transition in a high-temperature chiral magnet
• Disordered Topological Insulators via $C^{\ast }$-Algebras
• Topological Insulators in Random Lattices
• Real-space observation of short-period cubic lattice of skyrmions in MnGe
• Quantized Anomalous Hall Effects in Skyrmion Crystal
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Spin Bott Index in a Quasicrystal Lattice
• Theory of magnon-skyrmion scattering in chiral magnets
• Half-Metallic Ferromagnetism in the Heusler Compound Co${}_2$FeSi revealed by Resistivity, Magnetoresistance, and Anomalous Hall Effect measurements
• Enhanced Stability of Skyrmions in Two-Dimensional Chiral Magnets with Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Skyrmion Crystal from RKKY Interaction Mediated by 2D Electron Gas
• Theory of spin Bott index for quantum spin Hall states in non-periodic systems
• Topological Insulators and C^*-Algebras: Theory and Numerical Practice
• Isolated zero field sub-10 nm skyrmions in ultrathin Co films
• Topological Amorphous Metals
• Size-dependent Surface States on Strained Cobalt Nanoislands on Cu(111)
• Unconventional Topological Hall Effect in Skyrmion Crystals Caused by the Topology of the Lattice
• Overcoming the speed limit in skyrmion racetrack devices by suppressing the skyrmion Hall effect
• Topological Hall Effect and Emergent Skyrmion Crystal in Manganite-Iridate Oxide Interfaces
• Determining the Rashba parameter from the bilinear magnetoresistance response in a two-dimensional electron gas
• Real space Berry curvature of itinerant electron systems with spin-orbit interaction
• Inducing skyrmions in ultrathin Fe films by hydrogen exposure
• Solid--liquid transition of skyrmions in a two-dimensional chiral magnet
• Electric transport in three-dimensional Skyrmion/monopole crystal
• The emergence of magnetic skyrmions
• Formation of a Topological Monopole Lattice and its Dynamics in Three-dimensional Chiral Magnets
• The family of topological Hall effects for electrons in skyrmion crystals
• Time-dependent topological systems: A study of the Bott index
• Parallelized Traveling Cluster Approximation to Study Numerically Spin-Fermion Models on Large Lattices
• New Microscopic Magnetic Hamiltonian for Exotic Spin Textures in Metals
• Strong Coupling Expansion of the Extended Hubbard Model with Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Dual nature of magnetism in MnSi
• A new route to enhance the ferromagnetic transition temperature in diluted magnetic semiconductors

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Topological spin crystals by itinerant frustration
• Skyrmion crystal and spiral phases in centrosymmetric bilayer magnets with staggered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
• Rhombic skyrmion lattice coupled with orthorhombic structural distortion in EuAl${}_4$
• Mechanism of antisymmetric spin polarization in centrosymmetric multiple-$Q$ magnets based on bilinear and biquadratic spin cross products
• Multifarious skyrmion phases on a trilayer triangular lattice
• Skyrmion fluid and bimeron glass protected by a chiral spin liquid on a kagome lattice
• Skyrmion crystals in centrosymmetric triangular magnets under hexagonal and trigonal single-ion anisotropy
• Charge density waves in multiple-$Q$ spin states
• Square skyrmion crystal in centrosymmetric systems with locally inversion-asymmetric layers
• Skyrmion Crystals in the Triangular Kondo Lattice Model
• Phase diagram of the square lattice Hubbard model with Rashba-type antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling
• Engineering antiferromagnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions at metallic interfaces
• From chiral spin liquids to skyrmion fluids and crystals, and their interplay with itinerant electrons
• Skyrmion crystal under $D_{3h}$ point group: Role of out-of-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
• Antiskyrmions and Bloch Skyrmions in Magnetic Dresselhaus Metals
• Skyrmion crystal with integer and fractional skyrmion numbers in a nonsymmorphic lattice structure with the screw axis
• Antiferro skyrmion crystal phases in a synthetic bilayer antiferromagnet under an in-plane magnetic field
• Spin-orbit coupled Hubbard skyrmions