SCIENCE SPIN-OFFS

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Face centered cubic and hexagonal close packed skyrmion crystals in centro-symmetric magnets

Shi-Zeng Lin, Cristian D. Batista
(Submitted on 18 Jul 2017)

Skyrmions are disk-like objects that typically form a triangular crystals in two dimensional systems. This situation is analogous to the so-called "pancake vortices" of quasi-two dimensional superconductors. The way in which skyrmion disks or \emph{pancake skyrmions} pile up in layered inversion-symmetric materials is dictated by the nature of the inter-layer exchange. Using unbiased Monte Carlo simulations and simple stabilization arguments, we find that different choices of the inter-layer exchange can lead to face centered cubic and hexagonal close packed crystals of pancake skyrmions, in addition to the conventional triangular crystal of skyrmion lines. Moreover, an inhogmoeneous current induces sliding motion of pancake skyrmions on different layers, indicating that they behave as effective mesoscale particles.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.05818