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Mechanism of Skyrmion Attraction in Chiral Magnets near the Ordering Temperatures.
2023, Leonov, Andrey O., Rößler, Ulrich K.
Isolated chiral skyrmions are investigated within the phenomenological Dzyaloshinskii model near the ordering temperatures of quasi-two-dimensional chiral magnets with Cnv symmetry and three-dimensional cubic helimagnets. In the former case, isolated skyrmions (IS) perfectly blend into the homogeneously magnetized state. The interaction between these particle-like states, being repulsive in a broad low-temperature (LT) range, is found to switch into attraction at high temperatures (HT). This leads to a remarkable confinement effect: near the ordering temperature, skyrmions exist only as bound states. This is a consequence of the coupling between the magnitude and the angular part of the order parameter, which becomes pronounced at HT. The nascent conical state in bulk cubic helimagnets, on the contrary, is shown to shape skyrmion internal structure and to substantiate the attraction between them. Although the attracting skyrmion interaction in this case is explained by the reduction of the total pair energy due to the overlap of skyrmion shells, which are circular domain boundaries with the positive energy density formed with respect to the surrounding host phase, additional magnetization "ripples" at the skyrmion outskirt may lead to attraction also at larger length scales. The present work provides fundamental insights into the mechanism for complex mesophase formation near the ordering temperatures and constitutes a first step to explain the phenomenon of multifarious precursor effects in that temperature region.
Quantum chemical insights into hexaboride electronic structures: correlations within the boron p-orbital subsystem
2022, Petersen, Thorben, Rößler, Ulrich K., Hozoi, Liviu
The notion of strong electronic correlations arose in the context of d-metal oxides such as NiO but can be exemplified on systems as simple as the H2 molecule. Here we shed light on correlation effects on B62− clusters as found in MB6 hexaborides and show that the B 2p valence electrons are fairly correlated. B6-octahedron excitation energies computed for CaB6 and YbB6 agree with peak positions found by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, providing a compelling picture for the latter. Our findings characterize these materials as very peculiar p-electron correlated systems and call for more involved many-body investigations within the whole hexaboride family, both alkaline- and rare-earth compounds, not only for N- but also (N ± 1)-states defining e. g. band gaps.
Resonating holes vs molecular spin-orbit coupled states in group-5 lacunar spinels
2023, Petersen, Thorben, Bhattacharyya, Pritam, Rößler, Ulrich K., Hozoi, Liviu
The valence electronic structure of magnetic centers is one of the factors that determines the characteristics of a magnet. This may refer to orbital degeneracy, as for jeff = 1/2 Kitaev magnets, or near-degeneracy, e.g., involving the third and fourth shells in cuprate superconductors. Here we explore the inner structure of magnetic moments in group-5 lacunar spinels, fascinating materials featuring multisite magnetic units in the form of tetrahedral tetramers. Our quantum chemical analysis reveals a very colorful landscape, much richer than the single-electron, single-configuration description applied so far to all group-5 GaM4X8 chalcogenides, and clarifies the basic multiorbital correlations on M4 tetrahedral clusters: while for V strong correlations yield a wave-function that can be well described in terms of four V4+V3+V3+V3+ resonant valence structures, for Nb and Ta a picture of dressed molecular-orbital jeff = 3/2 entities is more appropriate. These internal degrees of freedom likely shape vibronic couplings, phase transitions, and the magneto-electric properties in each of these systems.
Curvature effects on phase transitions in chiral magnets
2020, Yershov, Kostiantyn V., Kravchuk, Volodymyr P., Sheka, Denis D., Rößler, Ulrich K.
Periodical equilibrium states of magnetization exist in chiral ferromagnetic films, if the constant of antisymmetric exchange (Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction) exceeds some critical value. Here, we demonstrate that this critical value can be significantly modified in curved film. The competition between symmetric and antisymmetric exchange interactions in a curved film can lead to a new type of domain wall which is inclined with respect to the cylinder axis. The wall structure is intermediate between Bloch and N\'eel ones. The exact analytical solutions for phase boundary curves and the new domain wall are obtained.
Strongly frustrated triangular spin lattice emerging from triplet dimer formation in honeycomb Li2IrO3
2016, Nishimoto, Satoshi, Katukuri, Vamshi M., Yushankhai, Viktor, Stoll, Hermann, Rößler, Ulrich K., Hozoi, Liviu, Rousochatzakis, Ioannis, van den Brink, Jeroen
Iridium oxides with a honeycomb lattice have been identified as platforms for the much anticipated Kitaev topological spin liquid: the spin-orbit entangled states of Ir4+ in principle generate precisely the required type of anisotropic exchange. However, other magnetic couplings can drive the system away from the spin-liquid phase. With this in mind, here we disentangle the different magnetic interactions in Li2IrO3, a honeycomb iridate with two crystallographically inequivalent sets of adjacent Ir sites. Our ab initio many-body calculations show that, while both Heisenberg and Kitaev nearest-neighbour couplings are present, on one set of Ir–Ir bonds the former dominates, resulting in the formation of spin-triplet dimers. The triplet dimers frame a strongly frustrated triangular lattice and by exact cluster diagonalization we show that they remain protected in a wide region of the phase diagram.
Manipulating topological states by imprinting non-collinear spin textures
2015, Streubel, Robert, Han, Luyang, Im, Mi-Young, Kronast, Florian, Rößler, Ulrich K., Radu, Florin, Abrudan, Radu, Lin, Gungun, Schmidt, Oliver G., Fischer, Peter, Makarov, Denys
Topological magnetic states, such as chiral skyrmions, are of great scientific interest and show huge potential for novel spintronics applications, provided their topological charges can be fully controlled. So far skyrmionic textures have been observed in noncentrosymmetric crystalline materials with low symmetry and at low temperatures. We propose theoretically and demonstrate experimentally the design of spin textures with topological charge densities that can be tailored at ambient temperatures. Tuning the interlayer coupling in vertically stacked nanopatterned magnetic heterostructures, such as a model system of a Co/Pd multilayer coupled to Permalloy, the in-plane non-collinear spin texture of one layer can be imprinted into the out-of-plane magnetised material. We observe distinct spin textures, e.g. vortices, magnetic swirls with tunable opening angle, donut states and skyrmion core configurations. We show that applying a small magnetic field, a reliable switching between topologically distinct textures can be achieved at remanence.