We study the collective dynamics of a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of magnetic skyrmions. By performing large-scale micromagnetic simulations, we find multiple chiral and non-chiral edge modes of skyrmion oscillations in the lattice. The non-chiral edge states are due to the Tamm-Shockley mechanism, while the chiral ones are topologically protected against structure defects and hold different handednesses depending on the mode frequency. To interpret the emerging multiband nature of the chiral edge states, we generalize the massless Thiele's equation by including a second-order inertial term of skyrmion mass as well as a third-order non-Newtonian gyroscopic term, which allows us to model the band structure of skrymion oscillations. Theoretical results compare well with numerical simulations. Our findings uncover the importance of high order effects in strongly coupled skyrmions and are helpful for designing novel topological devices.
We numerically examine a single skyrmion dynamics under the influence of triangular and honeycomb obstacle arrays at zero temperature. The skyrmion Hall angle $θ_{sk}$, that is the angle between the applied external drive and the direction of the skyrmion motion, increases in quantized steps or continuously as a function of the applied drive. For the obstacle arrays studied in this work, the skyrmion exhibits two main directional locking effects, where the skyrmion motion locks with $θ_{sk}=-30^\circ$ and $-60^\circ$. We show that these directions are privileged due to the obstacle landscape s…
Topological spin textures, like skyrmions, have significant potential for spintronics applications. The main purpose of this work is to study further the topological spin textures on the discrete lattice with magnetic fields. In this work, we study a classical rotated Heisenberg model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, bond-dependent anisotropy and easy-axis anisotropy on the honeycomb lattice via Monte Carlo simulations. We mainly focus on phase diagrams with magnetic fields, especially on the non-trivial phases only existing with fields. The results demonstrate the emergence of field-in…
We report on the thermal effects on the motion of current-driven massive magnetic skyrmions. The reduced equation for the motion of skyrmion has the form of a stochastic generalized Thiele's equation. We propose an ansatz for the magnetization texture of a non-rigid single skyrmion that depends linearly with the velocity. By utilizing this ansatz it is is found that the mass of skyrmion is closely related to intrinsic skyrmion parameters, such as Gilbert damping, skyrmion-charge and dissipative force. We have found an exact expression for the average drift velocity as well as the mean-square v…
When a magnetic skyrmion is modeled as a point particle, its dynamics depends on the precise definition of the skyrmion center. The guiding-center position, defined as the first moment of the skyrmion density, exhibits Thiele's massless dynamics; position based on the first moment of magnetization component $m_z$ shows Larmor oscillations characteristic of a massive particle. We show that, even with the latter definition, the Larmor oscillations may be absent for certain types of external forces such as adiabatic spin torque. We offer an alternative mechanical model of a skyrmion featuring two…
Emergence of multiple topological spin textures in an all-magnetic van der Waals heterostructure
Université de Toulouse, CNRS, CEMES（图卢兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心，材料微观分析与化学研究所）；Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, University of Kiel（基尔大学理论与天体物理研究所）；Science Institute and Faculty of Physical Sciences, University of Iceland（冰岛大学理学院与物理科学学院）；Kiel Nano, Surface, and Interface Science (KiNSIS), University of Kiel（基尔大学基尔纳米、表面与界面科学研究所）
We study the magnetic response of buckled honeycomb-lattice materials. The buckling breaks the sublattice symmetry, enhances the spin-orbit coupling, and allows the tuning of a topological quantum phase transition. As a result, there are two doubly degenerate spin-valley coupled massive Dirac bands, which exhibit an unconventional Hall plateau sequence under strong magnetic fields. We show how to externally control the splitting of anomalous zeroth Landau levels, the prominent Landau level crossing effects, and the polarizations of spin, valley, and sublattice degrees of freedom. In particular…
Two-dimensional lattices of coupled micropillars etched in a planar semiconductor microcavity offer a workbench to engineer the band structure of polaritons. We report experimental studies of honeycomb lattices where the polariton low-energy dispersion is analogous to that of electrons in graphene. Using energy-resolved photoluminescence we directly observe Dirac cones, around which the dynamics of polaritons is described by the Dirac equation for massless particles. At higher energies, we observe p orbital bands, one of them with the nondispersive character of a flatband. The realization of t…
Heavy fermion systems represent a prototypical setting to study magnetic quantum phase transitions. A particular focus has been on the physics of Kondo destruction, which captures quantum criticality beyond the Landau framework of order-parameter fluctuations. In this context, we study the spin one-half Kondo-Heisenberg model on a honeycomb lattice at half filling. The problem is approached from the Kondo destroyed, antiferromagnetically ordered insulating phase. We describe the local moments in terms of a coarse grained quantum non-linear sigma model, and show that the skyrmion defects of the…
Excitations of two-dimensional skyrmion lattice are theoretically studied based on a collective coordinate description. Starting from the representation of skyrmion lattice in terms of three helices, we identify the canonical coordinates describing low energy excitations as phasons. The phason excitation spectra turn out to have one gapless mode with a quadratic dispersion and one massive mode, in agreement with previous studies. We will show that there is another collective mode governing the topological nature and the stability of skyrmion lattice and that the fluctuation of this mode leads …
We study the quantum propagation of a Skyrmion in chiral magnetic insulators by generalizing the micromagnetic equations of motion to a finite-temperature path integral formalism, using field theoretic tools. Promoting the center of the Skyrmion to a dynamic quantity, the fluctuations around the Skyrmionic configuration give rise to a time-dependent damping of the Skyrmion motion. From the frequency dependence of the damping kernel, we are able to identify the Skyrmion mass, thus providing a microscopic description of the kinematic properties of Skyrmions. When defects are present or a magneti…
The Reservoir Computing (RC) paradigm posits that sufficiently complex physical systems can be used to massively simplify pattern recognition tasks and nonlinear signal prediction. This work demonstrates how random topological magnetic textures present sufficiently complex resistance responses for the implementation of RC as applied to A/C current pulses. In doing so, we stress how the applicability of this paradigm hinges on very general dynamical properties which are satisfied by a large class of physical systems where complexity can be put to computational use. By harnessing the complex res…
It is shown that the collective spin rotation of a single Skyrmion in quantum Hall ferromagnet can be regarded as precession of the entire spin texture in the external magnetic field, with an effective moment of inertia which becomes infinite in the zero g-factor limit. This low-lying spin excitation may dramatically enhance the nuclear spin relaxation rate via the hyperfine interaction in the quantum well slightly away from filling factor equal one.
A quantum magnetic state due to magnetic charges is never observed, even though they are treated as quantum mechanical variable in theoretical calculations. Here, we demonstrate the occurrence of a novel quantum disordered state of magnetic charges in nanoengineered magnetic honeycomb lattice of ultra-small connecting elements. The experimental research, performed using spin resolved neutron scattering, reveals a massively degenerate ground state, comprised of low integer and energetically forbidden high integer magnetic charges, that manifests cooperative paramagnetism at low temperature. The…
Compression dramatically changes the transport and localization properties of graphene. This is intimately related to the change of symmetry of the Dirac cone when the particle hopping is different along different directions of the lattice. In particular, for a critical compression, a semi-Dirac cone is formed with massless and massive dispersions along perpendicular directions. Here we show direct evidence of the highly anisotropic transport of polaritons in a honeycomb lattice of coupled micropillars implementing a semi-Dirac cone. If we optically induce a vacancy-like defect in the lattice,…
We study electron scattering from a closed magnetic structure embedded in the top surface of a topological insulator (TI). Outside the structure there is a uniform layer of ferromagnetic insulator (FMI), leading to a positive effective mass for the Dirac electrons. The mass inside can be engineered to be negative, leading to a skyrmion structure. The geometric shape of the structure can be circular or deformed, leading to integrable or chaotic dynamics, respectively, in the classical limit. For a circular structure, the relativistic quantum scattering characteristics can be calculated analytic…
We show that the magnetic field produced by a chiral ferromagnetic film can be applied to control ultracold atoms. The film will act as a magnetic mirror or a reflection grating for ultracold atoms when it is in the helical phase or the skyrmion crystal phase respectively. By applying a bias magnetic field and a time-dependent magnetic field, one-dimensional or two-dimensional magnetic lattices including honeycomb, Kagome, triangular types can be created to trap the ultracold atoms. We have also discussed the trapping height, potential barrier, trapping frequency, and Majorana loss rate for ea…
We study the magnetic dynamics of magnetoelectric antiferromagnetic thin films, where an unconventional boundary ferromagnetism coexists with the bulk Néel phase below the Néel temperature. The spin exchange between the two order parameters yields an effective low-energy theory that is formally equivalent to that of a ferrimagnet. Dynamics of domain walls and skyrmions are analyzed within the collective variable approach, from which we conclude that they behave as massive particles moving in a viscous medium subjected to a gyrotropic force. We find that the film thickness can be used as a cont…
The Haldane model on a honeycomb lattice is a paradigmatic example of a system featuring quantized Hall conductivity in the absence of an external magnetic field, that is, a quantum anomalous Hall effect. Recent theoretical work predicted that the anomalous Hall conductivity of massive Dirac fermions can display Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations, which could be observed in topological insulators and honeycomb layers with strong spin--orbit coupling. Here, we investigate the electronic transport properties of Chern insulators subject to high magnetic fields by means of accurate spectral expa…
We develop a comprehensive theory of twisted bilayer magnetism. Starting from the first-principles calculations of two-dimensional honeycomb magnet CrI3, we construct the generic spin models that represent a broad class of twisted bilayer magnetic systems. Using Monte-Carlo method, we discover a variety of non-collinear magnetic orders and topological magnons that have been overlooked in the previous theoretical and experimental studies. As a function of the twist angle, the collinear magnetic order undergoes the phase transitions to the non-collinear order and the magnetic domain phase. In th…
Zero energy states in the Dirac spectrum with U(1) symmetric massive vortices of various underlying insulating orders in strained graphene are constructed in the presence of the magnetic field. An easy plane vortex of antiferromagnet and quantum spin Hall orders host two zero energy states, however, with two different length scales. Such inequivalent zero modes can lead to oscillatory charge and magnetization, and their usual quantizations get restored only far from the vortex core. Otherwise, these zero modes can be delocalized from each other by tuning the mutual strength of two fields. One …
Geometric frustration emerges when local interaction energies in an ordered lattice structure cannot be simultaneously minimized, resulting in a large number of degenerate states. The numerous degenerate configurations may lead to practical applications in microelectronics, such as data storage, memory and logic. However, it is difficult to achieve extensive degeneracy, especially in a two-dimensional system. Here, we showcase in-situ controllable geometric frustration with massive degeneracy in a two-dimensional flux quantum system. We create this in a superconducting thin film placed underne…
