Experimental realisation of topological spin textures in a Penning trap

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the deterministic creation and detailed imaging of topological spin textures, specifically skyrmions, in a large trapped-ion quantum system, enabling new explorations of complex quantum phenomena.

Contribution

It presents the first controlled generation and site-resolved imaging of skyrmions in a 2D ion crystal, advancing quantum simulation of topological spin textures.

Findings

Successfully generated skyrmions with a winding number of 0.99±0.02.

Achieved a mean local fidelity of 0.87±0.04 in spin reconstruction.

Extended control to prepare domain-wall states in the ion crystal.

Abstract

Quantum simulation with controllable many-body platforms offers a powerful route to exploring complex phases and dynamics that are difficult to access in natural materials. Among these, topological spin textures such as skyrmions are central to modern condensed-matter physics and play a key role in chiral quantum many-body systems. Their controlled realisation in large, programmable quantum platforms, however, remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we report deterministic generation and site-resolved reconstruction of topological spin textures in a two-dimensional crystal of more than 150 trapped ions. Using globally applied spin-dependent forces, we generate skyrmion configurations and reconstruct the full vector spin field with single-ion resolution, obtaining a winding number of 0.99$\pm$0.02 and a mean local fidelity of 0.87$\pm$0.04. In addition, we implement single-ion-resolved control to deterministically prepare domain-wall states, extending our approach to a broader class of non-uniform spin textures. These results establish trapped-ion crystals as a platform for engineering complex spin textures and open the door to exploring topology-dependent nonequilibrium dynamics in long-range interacting quantum systems.