SKM 2021 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 5: Posters Magnetism II

MA 5.11: Poster

Tuesday, September 28, 2021, 10:00–13:00, P

Skyrmion braids — Fengshan Zheng¹, Filipp N. Rybakov², •Nikolai S. Kiselev³, Dongsheng Song^1,4, András Kovács¹, Haifeng Du⁵, Stefan Blügel³, and Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski¹ — ¹Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Gr\"unberg Institute, Forschungszentrum J\"ulich, 52425 J\"ulich, Germany — ²Department of Physics, KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SE-10691 Sweden — ³Peter Gr\"unberg Institute and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum J\"ulich and JARA, 52425 J\"ulich, Germany — ⁴Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China — ⁵High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei, Anhui Province 230031, China

Skyrmions are vortex-like spin textures that form strings in magnetic crystals. Due to the analogy to elastic strings, skyrmion strings are naturally expected to braid and form complex three-dimensional patterns, but this phenomenon has not been explored yet. We found that skyrmion strings can form braids in cubic crystals of chiral magnets [1]. Our finding is confirmed by direct observations of skyrmion braids in B20-type FeGe using transmission electron microscopy. The theoretical analysis predicts that the discovered phenomenon is general for a wide family of chiral magnets. These findings have important implications for skyrmionics and propose a solid-state framework for applications of the mathematical theory of braids.

[1] F. Zheng et al., arXiv:2104.01682.