CP2 skyrmions and skyrmion crystals in realistic quantum magnets

Hao Zhang; Zhentao Wang; David Dahlbom; Kipton Barros; Cristian D Batista

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39232-8

CP² skyrmions and skyrmion crystals in realistic quantum magnets

Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 19;14(1):3626. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39232-8.

Authors

Hao Zhang^{1

2

3}, Zhentao Wang^{4

5

6}, David Dahlbom⁴, Kipton Barros⁷, Cristian D Batista^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA. zhang_h@lanl.gov.
² Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA. zhang_h@lanl.gov.
³ Theoretical Division and CNLS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. zhang_h@lanl.gov.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
⁵ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
⁶ Center for Correlated Matter and School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
⁷ Theoretical Division and CNLS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA. cbatist2@utk.edu.
⁹ Quantum Condensed Matter Division and Shull-Wollan Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA. cbatist2@utk.edu.

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are nanoscale topological textures that have been recently observed in different families of quantum magnets. These objects are called CP¹ skyrmions because they are built from dipoles-the target manifold is the 1D complex projective space, CP¹ ≅ S². Here we report the emergence of magnetic CP² skyrmions in a realistic spin-1 model, which includes both dipole and quadrupole moments. Unlike CP¹ skyrmions, CP² skyrmions can also arise as metastable textures of quantum paramagnets, opening a new road to discover emergent topological solitons in non-magnetic materials. The quantum phase diagram of the spin-1 model also includes magnetic field-induced CP² skyrmion crystals that can be detected with regular momentum- (diffraction) and real-space (Lorentz transmission electron microscopy) experimental techniques.