Journal article
Periodically modulated skyrmion strings in Cu2OSeO3
- Abstract:
- Magnetic skyrmions are vortex-like spin textures, which are usually treated as two-dimensional objects. In their lattice state, they form well-ordered, hexagonal structures, which have been studied in great detail. To obtain a three-dimensional (3D) skyrmion crystal, these planes can be envisaged to be stacked up forming skyrmion strings in the third dimension. Here, we report the observation of a 3D skyrmion phase in Cu2OSeO3 by carrying out reciprocal space mapping in resonant elastic x-ray scattering. We observe regions in the magnetic field-cooling phase diagram in which the skyrmion phase apparently coexists with the conical phase. However, such a coexistence is forbidden due to symmetry arguments. Instead, the skyrmion strings themselves are periodically modulated along their axes, as confirmed by micromagnetic simulations. The periodic modulation is in fact a necessary consequence of the evolution of the skyrmion phase out of the conical state, and should therefore be a universal property of skyrmion strings in chiral helimagnets.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 3.2MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41535-021-00373-y
Authors
+ Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
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- Funder identifier:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266
- Grant:
- RF040462
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- npj Quantum Materials More from this journal
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 2021
- Article number:
- 73
- Publication date:
- 2021-08-11
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-07-15
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2397-4648
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1186473
- Local pid:
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pubs:1186473
- Deposit date:
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2021-07-15
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Burn et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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