Mapping Skyrmion Stability in Uniaxial Lacunar Spinel Magnets from First-Principles

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to map the stability of magnetic skyrmions in lacunar spinel magnets, revealing that their stability is primarily due to crystal symmetry and can occur over wide temperature ranges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive phase diagram analysis showing skyrmion stability is driven by symmetry rather than chemistry, applicable to all lacunar spinels and similar uniaxial systems.

Findings

Skyrmion stability is linked to crystal symmetry.

Phase diagrams depend on magnetocrystalline anisotropy.

Skyrmions can exist over wide temperature ranges.

Abstract

The identification of general principles for stabilizing magnetic skyrmion phases in bulk materials over wide ranges of temperatures is a prerequisite to the development of skyrmion-based spintronic devices. Lacunar spinels with the formula GaM4X8 with M=V, Mo; X=S, Se are a convenient case study towards this goal as they are some of the first bulk systems suggested to host equilibrium chiral skyrmions far from the paramagnetic transition. We derive the magnetic phase diagrams likely to be observed in these materials, accounting for all possible magnetic interactions, and prove that skyrmion stability in the lacunar spinels is a general consequence of their crystal symmetry rather than the details of the material chemistry. Our results are consistent with all experimental reports in this space and demonstrate that the differences in the phase diagrams of particular spinel chemistries are determined by magnetocrystalline anisotropy, up to a normalization factor. We conclude that skyrmion formation over wide ranges of temperatures can be expected in all lacunar spinels, as well as in a wide range of uniaxial systems with low magnetocrystalline anisotropy.