High-temperature non-centrosymmetric magnets for skyrmionics

Abstract

Such topological spin textures as magnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions have attracted significant interest in recent years owing to their rich variety of underlying physics and potential applications in next-generation magnetic devices. In the domain of applications, it is essential to stabilize the topological spin textures over a wide range of temperatures, including room temperature, and manipulate them with various external stimuli. Significant developments have been made in room-temperature skyrmions and antiskyrmions arising from the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) in several magnetic materials with broken inversion symmetry. In this Perspective, we review recent progress in non-centrosymmetric magnets with bulk DMI, which host skyrmions and antiskyrmions above room temperature. We first provide an overview of room-temperature Bloch-type skyrmions and the robustness of their metastability, the variety of their forms, and their dynamics in Co–Zn–Mn alloys with a β-Mn-type chiral structure. We then focus on room-temperature antiskyrmions as well as their topological transformations in Heusler alloys with D2d symmetry and Pd-doped (Fe,Ni)3P with S4 symmetry. The robust skyrmions and antiskyrmions, with versatile tunability in these non-centrosymmetric materials at room temperature, represent a step toward the long-sought milestone of “skyrmionics.”