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Direct observation of attractive skyrmions and skyrmion clusters in the cubic helimagnet Cu2OSeO3

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Loudon, JC 
Leonov, AO 
Bogdanov, AN 
Hatnean, MC 
Balakrishnan, G 

Abstract

We report the discovery of attractive magnetic skyrmions and their clusters in non-centrosymmetric ferromagnets. These three-dimensional solitons have been predicted to exist in the cone phase of chiral ferromagnets (J. Phys: Condens. Matter 28 (2016) 35LT01) and are fundamentally different from the more common repulsive axisymmetric skyrmions that occur in the magnetically saturated state. We present real-space images of these skyrmion clusters in thin (~70 nm) single-crystal samples of Cu2OSeO3 taken using transmission electron microscopy and develop a phenomenological theory describing this type of skyrmion.

Description

Keywords

cond-mat.mes-hall, cond-mat.mes-hall

Journal Title

Physical Review B

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2469-9950
2469-9969

Volume Title

97

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
EPSRC (via Durham University) (RF040462)