Skyrmion crystal formation and temperature -- magnetic field phase diagram of the frustrated tirangular-lattice Heisenberg magnet with easy-axis masugnetic anisotropy

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to explore skyrmion crystal formation and phase diagrams in a frustrated triangular-lattice Heisenberg magnet with easy-axis anisotropy, revealing stable and metastable phases.

Contribution

It provides a detailed phase diagram and identifies conditions stabilizing skyrmion crystals and other multiple-q phases in a frustrated magnetic system.

Findings

Skyrmion crystal is stabilized at intermediate fields and low temperatures.

Easy-axis anisotropy stabilizes SkX down to zero temperature.

New multiple-q states with broken C3 symmetry are found at low fields.

Abstract

The nature of the skyrmion-crystal (SkX) formation and various multiple-$q$ phases encompassing the SkX phase are investigated by extensive Monte Carlo simulations on the frustrated $J_1$-$J_3$ triangular-lattice Heisenberg model with the weak easy-axis magnetic anisotropy. Phase diagram in the temperature $T$ vs. magnetic-field $H$ plane are constructed, leading to a rich variety of multiple-$q$ phases. The anisotropy stabilizes the SkX state down to $T=0$ at intermediate fields, while in the lower-field range the SkX state becomes only metastable, and new multiple-$q$ states with a broken $C_3$ symmetry are instead stabilized. Implications to experiments are discussed.