Topological orbital Hall effect caused by skyrmions and antiferromagnetic skyrmions

TL;DR

This paper reveals a topological orbital Hall effect caused by skyrmions and antiferromagnetic skyrmions, showing that orbital currents can be generated independently of charge currents, with potential for information transport and orbital torque applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a topological orbital Hall effect in skyrmionic textures, including antiferromagnetic skyrmions, independent of spin-orbit coupling and charge transport.

Findings

Orbital polarization occurs even without spin-orbit coupling.

Antiferromagnetic skyrmions exhibit large orbital Hall conductivity without charge currents.

Skyrmionic textures can generate orbital currents for information transport.

Abstract

The topological Hall effect is a hallmark of topologically non-trivial magnetic textures such as magnetic skyrmions. It quantifies the transverse electric current that is generated once an electric field is applied and occurs as a consequence of the emergent magnetic field of the skyrmion. Likewise, an orbital magnetization is generated. Here we show that the charge currents are orbital polarized even though the conduction electrons couple to the skyrmion texture via their spin. The topological Hall effect is accompanied by a topological orbital Hall effect even for s electrons without spin-orbit coupling. As we show, antiferromagnetic skyrmions and antiferromagnetic bimerons that have a compensated emergent field, exhibit a topological orbital Hall conductivity that is not accompanied by charge transport and can be orders of magnitude larger than the topological spin Hall conductivity. Skyrmionic textures serve as generators of orbital currents that can transport information and give rise to considerable orbital torques.