Zero-field miniature skyrmion crystal and chiral domain state in breathing-kagome antiferromagnets

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates the stabilization of zero-field miniature skyrmion crystals in breathing-kagome antiferromagnets with various anisotropies, revealing potential for topological Hall effects and chiral domain structures.

Contribution

It extends the understanding of skyrmion crystal stability to more general anisotropic conditions in breathing-kagome antiferromagnets, including easy-axis and easy-plane cases.

Findings

Zero-field SkX stabilized in broader anisotropic conditions.

Degeneracy of SkX and anti-SkX allows for topological Hall effect.

Chiral degeneracy leads to random domain structures.

Abstract

The stability of a miniature skyrmion crystal (SkX) with only a small number of spins in the magnetic unit cell has been theoretically investigated in $J_1$-$J_3$ antiferromagnets on the breathing kagome lattice with a single-ion anisotropy $D$ at zero field. It is found by means of Monte Carlo simulations that due to the breathing bond-alternation, a zero-field triple-${\bf Q}$ miniature SkX can be stabilized not only in the specific case of $D=0$ [K. Aoyama and H. Kawamura, Phys. Rev. B 105, L100407 (2022)] but also in more general situations with easy-axis ($D<0$) and easy-plane ($D>0$) anisotropies which favor triple-${\bf Q}$ collinear and noncoplanar states, respectively. Since the SkX and anti-SkX each having positive or negative chirality are energetically degenerate, the topological Hall effect of alternative sign is possible at zero field. It is also found that reflecting the chiral degeneracy, the collinear and coplanar phases preempting the SkX phase possess random domain structures consisting of positive- and negative-chirality clusters.