Unwinding of a skyrmion lattice by magnetic monopoles

P. Milde; D. Köhler; J. Seidel; L. M. Eng; A. Bauer; A. Chacon; J. Kindervater; S. Mühlbauer; C. Pfleiderer; S. Buhrandt; C. Schütte; A. Rosch

doi:10.1126/science.1234657

Unwinding of a skyrmion lattice by magnetic monopoles

P. Milde, D. Köhler, J. Seidel, L. M. Eng, A. Bauer, A. Chacon, J. Kindervater, S. Mühlbauer, C. Pfleiderer, S. Buhrandt, C. Schütte, A. Rosch

Chair of Experimental Physics on the Topology of Correlated Systems

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

480 Scopus citations

Abstract

Skyrmion crystals are regular arrangements of magnetic whirls that exist in a wide range of chiral magnets. Because of their topology, they cannot be created or destroyed by smooth rearrangements of the direction of the local magnetization. Using magnetic force microscopy, we tracked the destruction of the skyrmion lattice on the surface of a bulk crystal of Fe_1-xCo _xSi (x = 0.5). Our study revealed that skyrmions vanish by a coalescence, forming elongated structures. Numerical simulations showed that changes of topology are controlled by singular magnetic point defects. They can be viewed as quantized magnetic monopoles and antimonopoles, which provide sources and sinks of one flux quantum of emergent magnetic flux, respectively.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1076-1080
Number of pages	5
Journal	Science
Volume	340
Issue number	6136
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1234657
State	Published - 31 May 2013

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T1 - Unwinding of a skyrmion lattice by magnetic monopoles

AU - Milde, P.

AU - Köhler, D.

AU - Seidel, J.

AU - Eng, L. M.

AU - Bauer, A.

AU - Chacon, A.

AU - Kindervater, J.

AU - Mühlbauer, S.

AU - Pfleiderer, C.

AU - Buhrandt, S.

AU - Schütte, C.

AU - Rosch, A.

PY - 2013/5/31

Y1 - 2013/5/31

N2 - Skyrmion crystals are regular arrangements of magnetic whirls that exist in a wide range of chiral magnets. Because of their topology, they cannot be created or destroyed by smooth rearrangements of the direction of the local magnetization. Using magnetic force microscopy, we tracked the destruction of the skyrmion lattice on the surface of a bulk crystal of Fe1-xCo xSi (x = 0.5). Our study revealed that skyrmions vanish by a coalescence, forming elongated structures. Numerical simulations showed that changes of topology are controlled by singular magnetic point defects. They can be viewed as quantized magnetic monopoles and antimonopoles, which provide sources and sinks of one flux quantum of emergent magnetic flux, respectively.

AB - Skyrmion crystals are regular arrangements of magnetic whirls that exist in a wide range of chiral magnets. Because of their topology, they cannot be created or destroyed by smooth rearrangements of the direction of the local magnetization. Using magnetic force microscopy, we tracked the destruction of the skyrmion lattice on the surface of a bulk crystal of Fe1-xCo xSi (x = 0.5). Our study revealed that skyrmions vanish by a coalescence, forming elongated structures. Numerical simulations showed that changes of topology are controlled by singular magnetic point defects. They can be viewed as quantized magnetic monopoles and antimonopoles, which provide sources and sinks of one flux quantum of emergent magnetic flux, respectively.

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Unwinding of a skyrmion lattice by magnetic monopoles

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