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  • Square and rhombic lattices...
    Takagi, Rina; Matsuyama, Naofumi; Ukleev, Victor; Yu, Le; White, Jonathan S; Francoual, Sonia; Mardegan, José R L; Hayami, Satoru; Saito, Hiraku; Kaneko, Koji; Ohishi, Kazuki; Ōnuki, Yoshichika; Arima, Taka-Hisa; Tokura, Yoshinori; Nakajima, Taro; Seki, Shinichiro

    Nature communications, 03/2022, Volume: 13, Issue: 1
    Journal Article

    Magnetic skyrmions are topologically stable swirling spin textures with particle-like character, and have been intensively studied as a candidate of high-density information bit. While magnetic skyrmions were originally discovered in noncentrosymmetric systems with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, recently a nanometric skyrmion lattice has also been reported for centrosymmetric rare-earth compounds, such as Gd PdSi and GdRu Si . For the latter systems, a distinct skyrmion formation mechanism mediated by itinerant electrons has been proposed, and the search of a simpler model system allowing for a better understanding of their intricate magnetic phase diagram is highly demanded. Here, we report the discovery of square and rhombic lattices of nanometric skyrmions in a centrosymmetric binary compound EuAl , by performing small-angle neutron and resonant elastic X-ray scattering experiments. Unlike previously reported centrosymmetric skyrmion-hosting materials, EuAl shows multiple-step reorientation of the fundamental magnetic modulation vector as a function of magnetic field, probably reflecting a delicate balance of associated itinerant-electron-mediated interactions. The present results demonstrate that a variety of distinctive skyrmion orders can be derived even in a simple centrosymmetric binary compound, which highlights rare-earth intermetallic systems as a promising platform to realize/control the competition of multiple topological magnetic phases in a single material.