Radial Stabilization of Magnetic Skyrmions Under Strong External Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new two-dimensional magnetic model with a $q^2$ term that stabilizes skyrmions under strong magnetic fields, ensuring topological protection and stability without requiring broken inversion symmetry.

Contribution

The work proposes a novel $q^2$ interaction term in the Hamiltonian that stabilizes skyrmions in strong magnetic fields, extending understanding of topological magnetic textures.

Findings

The $q^2$ term persists at high magnetic fields, unlike exchange interactions.

Skyrmion configurations are stable under small perturbations.

The total energy is bounded from below, indicating topological stability.

Abstract

The skyrmion number density, $q\equiv\vec{n}\cdot\left(\partial_x\vec{n}\times\partial_y\vec{n}\right)/(4\pi)$, is one of the key quantities that characterizes the topological properties of a magnetic skyrmion. In this work, we propose a model for a two-dimensional magnetic system with Hamiltonian that contains an interaction term proportional to $q^2$ which preserves inversion symmetry. The proposed $q^2$ term is also known as the Skyrme term and is a two-dimensional version of the well-known quartic term in models of three-dimensional Hopfions. In contrast with the usual exchange interaction, the $q^2$ term persists at the strong external magnetic field limit. Using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation for micromagnetic calculations, we show that the minimum energy configuration of this model exhibits skyrmion properties. Furthermore, this configuration remains stable under small linear radially symmetric perturbations, and we demonstrate that the total energy of the system is bounded from below, ensuring that it remains above the vacuum energy. This implies a topologically protected configuration. Our model provides a framework for describing skyrmions in materials without broken inversion symmetry, particularly in systems subjected to strong external magnetic fields, where conventional exchange interactions are significantly weaker than the Zeeman effect.