James Rowland

Enhanced Stability of Skyrmions in Two-Dimensional Chiral Magnets with Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling

Recent developments have led to an explosion of activity on skyrmions in three-dimensional (3D) chiral magnets. Experiments have directly probed these topological spin textures, revealed their nontrivial properties, and led to suggestions for novel applications. However, in 3D the skyrmion crystal phase is observed only in a narrow region of the temperature-field phase diagram. We show here, using a general analysis based on symmetry, that skyrmions are much more readily stabilized in two-dimensional (2D) systems with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. This enhanced stability arises from the competition between field and easy-plane magnetic anisotropy and results in a nontrivial structure in the topological charge density in the core of the skyrmions. We further show that, in a variety of microscopic models for magnetic exchange, the required easy-plane anisotropy naturally arises from the same spin-orbit coupling that is responsible for the chiral Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Our results are of particular interest for 2D materials like thin films, surfaces, and oxide interfaces, where broken surface-inversion symmetry and Rashba spin-orbit coupling naturally lead to chiral exchange and easy-plane compass anisotropy. Our theory gives a clear direction for experimental studies of 2D magnetic materials to stabilize skyrmions over a large range of magnetic fields down to T=0.

Skyrmions in quasi-2D chiral magnets with broken bulk and surface inversion symmetry (Presentation Recording)

Most theoretical studies of chiral magnetism, and the resulting spin textures, have focused on 3D systems with broken bulk inversion symmetry, where skyrmions are stabilized by easy-axis anisotropy. In this talk I will describe our results on 2D and quasi-2D systems with broken surface inversion, where we find [1] that skyrmion crystals are much more stable than in 3D, especially for the case of easy-plane anisotropy. These results are of particular interest for thin films, surfaces, and oxide interfaces [2], where broken surface-inversion symmetry and Rashba spin-orbit coupling naturally lead to both the chiral Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction and to easy-plane compass anisotropy. I will then turn to systems that break both bulk and surface inversion, resulting in two distinct DM terms arising from Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit coupling. I will describe [3] the evolution of the skyrmion structure and of the phase diagram as a function of the ratio of Dresselhaus and Rashba terms, which can be tuned by varying film thickness and strain. [1] S. Banerjee, J. Rowland, O. Erten, and M. Randeria, PRX 4, 031045 (2014). [2] S. Banerjee, O. Erten, and M. Randeria, Nature Phys. 9, 626 (2013). [3] J. Rowland, S. Banerjee and M. Randeria, (unpublished).