Turning chiral skyrmion inside out

TL;DR

This paper explores how two-dimensional chiral skyrmions can be transformed into their oppositely polarized counterparts by varying the magnetic field, revealing new interaction potentials and coexistence regimes.

Contribution

It demonstrates the continuous transformation of skyrmions into antiparticles and analyzes their interaction potentials in tilted magnetic fields, a novel insight in skyrmion physics.

Findings

Skyrmions can be turned inside out by changing the magnetic field.

Coexistence of two skyrmion types occurs over a range of field values.

Inter-skyrmion potentials exhibit local minima and fusion channels.

Abstract

The stability of two-dimensional chiral skyrmions in a tilted magnetic field is studied. It is shown that by changing the direction of the field and its magnitude, one can continuously transform chiral skyrmion into a skyrmion with opposite polarity and vorticity. This turned inside out skyrmion can be considered as an antiparticle for ordinary axisymmetric skyrmion. For any tilt angle of the magnetic field, there is a range of its absolute values where two types of skyrmions may coexist. In a tilted field, the potentials for inter-skyrmion interactions are characterized by the presence of local minima suggesting attractive interaction between the particles. The potentials of inter-particle interactions also have so-called fusion channels allowing either annihilation of two particles or the emergence of a new particle. The presented results are general for a wide class of magnetic crystals with both easy-plane and easy-axis anisotropy.