# A spin model for intrinsic antiferromagnetic skyrmions on a triangular lattice

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a minimal Heisenberg model to understand intrinsic antiferromagnetic skyrmions on a triangular lattice, highlighting their stabilization mechanisms and potential for AFM spintronic applications.

## Contribution

It develops a fundamental theoretical model capturing the phase behavior of intrinsic AFM skyrmions on a triangular lattice, aiding in material design for AFM spintronics.

## Key findings

- Identifies key interactions stabilizing AFM skyrmions.
- Maps phase diagrams including magnetic field effects.
- Provides a basis for designing AFM topological magnetic materials.

## Abstract

Skyrmions are prospected as the potential future of data storage due to their topologically protected spin structures. However, traditional ferromagnetic (FM) skyrmions experience deflection when driven with an electric current, hindering their usage in spintronics. Antiferromagnetic (AFM) skyrmions, consisting of two FM solitons coupled antiferromagnetically, are predicted to have a zero Magnus force, making them promising candidates for spintronic racetrack memories. Currently, they have been stabilized in synthetic AFM structures, i.e. multilayers hosting FM skyrmions, which couple antiferromagnetically through a non-magnetic spacer, while recent first-principles simulations predict their emergence in an intrinsic form, within an row-wise AFM single monolayer of Cr deposited on PdFe bilayer grown on Ir(111) surfaces. The latter material forms a triangular lattice, where single and interlinked AFM skyrmions can be stabilized. Here, we explore the minimal Heisenberg model enabling the occurrence of such AFM solitons and the underlying phase diagrams by accounting for the interplay between the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and Heisenberg exchange interactions, as well as the magnetic anisotropy and impact of magnetic field. By providing the fundamental basis to identify and understand the behavior of intrinsic AFM skyrmions, we anticipate our model to become a powerful tool for exploring and designing new topological magnetic materials to conceptualize devices for AFM spintronics.