No Arabic abstract
The ground states of square lattice two-dimensional antiferromagnets with anisotropy in an external magnetic field are determined using Monte Carlo simulations and compared to theoretical analysis. We find a new phase in between the spin-flop and spiral phase that shows strong similarity to skyrmions in ferromagnetic thin films. We show that this phase arises as a result of the competition between Zeeman and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction energies of the magnetic system. Moreover, we find that isolated (anti-)skyrmions are stabilized in finite-sized systems, even at higher temperatures. The existence of thermodynamically stable skyrmions in square-lattice antiferromagnets provides an appealing alternative over skyrmions in ferromagnets as data carriers.
Skyrmions in antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction are expected to exist for essentially the same reasons as in DM ferromagnets (FM). It is shown that skyrmions in antiferromagnets with the DM interaction can be traveling as solitary waves with velocities up to a maximum value that depends on the DM parameter. Their configuration is found numerically. The energy and the linear momentum of an AFM skyrmion lead to a proper definition of its mass. We give the details of the energy-momentum dispersion of traveling skyrmions and explore their particle-like character based on exact relations. The skyrmion number, known to be linked to the dynamics of topological solitons in FM, is, here, unrelated to the dynamical behavior. As a result, the solitonic behavior of skyrmions in AFM is in stark contrast to the dynamical behavior of their FM counterparts
Using a mixed-ligand synthetic scheme, we create a family of quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnets, namely, [Cu(HF$_2$)(pyz)$_2$]ClO$_4$ [pyz = pyrazine], [Cu$L_2$(pyz)$_2$](ClO$_4$)$_2$ [$L$ = pyO = pyridine-N-oxide and 4-phpyO = 4-phenylpyridine-N-oxide. These materials are shown to possess equivalent two-dimensional [Cu(pyz)$_2$]$^{2+}$ nearly square layers, but exhibit interlayer spacings that vary from 6.5713~AA ~to 16.777~AA, as dictated by the axial ligands. We present the structural and magnetic properties of this family as determined via x-ray diffraction, electron-spin resonance, pulsed- and quasistatic-field magnetometry and muon-spin rotation, and compare them to those of the prototypical two-dimensional magnetic polymer Cu(pyz)$_2$(ClO$_4$)$_2$. We find that, within the limits of the experimental error, the two-dimensional, {it intralayer} exchange coupling in our family of materials remains largely unaffected by the axial ligand substitution, while the observed magnetic ordering temperature decreases slowly with increasing layer separation. Despite the structural motifs common to this family and Cu(pyz)$_2$(ClO$_4$)$_2$, the latter has significantly stronger two-dimensional exchange interactions and hence a higher ordering temperature. We discuss these results, as well as the mechanisms that might drive the long-range order in these materials, in terms of departures from the ideal $S=1/2$ two-dimensional square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet. In particular, we find that both spin exchange anisotropy in the intralayer interaction and interlayer couplings (exchange, dipolar, or both) are needed to account for the observed ordering temperatures, with the intralayer anisotropy becoming more important as the layers are pulled further apart.
Spin waves in antiferromagnetic materials have great potential for next-generation magnonic technologies. However, their properties and their dependence on the type of ground-state antiferromagnetic structure are still open questions. Here, we investigate theoretically spin waves in one- and two-dimensional model systems with a focus on noncollinear antiferromagnetic textures such as spin spirals and skyrmions of opposite topological charges. We address in particular the nonreciprocal spin excitations recently measured in bulk antiferromagnet $alpha$--$text{Cu}_2text{V}_2text{O}_7$ utilizing inelastic neutron scattering experiments [Phys. Rev. Lett. textbf{119}, 047201 (2017)], where we help to characterize the nature of the detected spin-wave modes. Furthermore, we discuss how the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can lift the degeneracy of the spin-wave modes in antiferromagnets, resembling the electronic Rashba splitting. We consider the spin-wave excitations in antiferromagnetic spin-spiral and skyrmion systems and discuss the features of their inelastic scattering spectra. We demonstrate that antiskyrmions can be obtained with an isotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in certain antiferromagnets.
Future spintronic devices based on skyrmions will require precise control of the skyrmion motion. We show that this goal can be achieved through the use of magnetic antidot arrays. With micromagnetic simulations and semi-analytical calculations based on Thiele equation, we demonstrate that an antidot array can guide the skyrmions in different directions depending on the parameters of the applied current pulse. Despite the fixed direction of the net driving current, due to the non-trivial interplay between the repulsive potential introduced by the antidots, the skyrmion Hall effect and the non-uniform current distribution, full control of skyrmion motion in a 2D lattice can be achieved. Moreover, we demonstrate that the direction of skyrmion motion can be controlled by tuning only a single parameter of the current pulse, i.e. current magnitude. For lower current magnitudes the skyrmion can be moved perpendicularly to the current direction, and can overcome the skyrmion Hall effect. For larger current magnitudes, the skyrmion Hall effect can be effectively suppressed and skyrmions can move parallel to the applied current.
We develop a simple and unbiased numerical method to obtain the uniform susceptibility of quantum many body systems. When a Hamiltonian is spatially deformed by multiplying it with a sine square function that smoothly decreases from the system center toward the edges, the size-scaling law of the excitation energy is drastically transformed to a rapidly converging one. Then, the local magnetization at the system center becomes nearly size independent; the one obtained for the deformed Hamiltonian of a system length as small as L=10 provides the value obtained for the original uniform Hamiltonian of L=100. This allows us to evaluate a bulk magnetic susceptibility by using the magnetization at the center by existing numerical solvers without any approximation, parameter tuning, or the size-scaling analysis. We demonstrate that the susceptibilities of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain and square lattice obtained by our scheme at L=10 agree within 10 to (-3) with exact analytical and numerical solutions for L=infinite down to temperature of 0.1 times the coupling constant. We apply this method to the spin-1/2 kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet which is of prime interest in the search of spin liquids.