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Disordered skyrmion phase stabilized by magnetic frustration in a chiral magnet.

Kosuke KarubeJonathan S WhiteDaisuke MorikawaCharles D DewhurstRobert CubittAkiko KikkawaXiuzhen YuYusuke TokunagaTaka-Hisa ArimaHenrik Moodysson RønnowYoshinori TokuraYasujiro Taguchi
Published in: Science advances (2018)
Magnetic skyrmions are vortex-like topological spin textures often observed to form a triangular-lattice skyrmion crystal in structurally chiral magnets with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Recently, β-Mn structure-type Co-Zn-Mn alloys were identified as a new class of chiral magnet to host such skyrmion crystal phases, while β-Mn itself is known as hosting an elemental geometrically frustrated spin liquid. We report the intermediate composition system Co7Zn7Mn6 to be a unique host of two disconnected, thermal-equilibrium topological skyrmion phases; one is a conventional skyrmion crystal phase stabilized by thermal fluctuations and restricted to exist just below the magnetic transition temperature Tc, and the other is a novel three-dimensionally disordered skyrmion phase that is stable well below Tc. The stability of this new disordered skyrmion phase is due to a cooperative interplay between the chiral magnetism with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the frustrated magnetism inherent to β-Mn.
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