Skyrmion crystal in the RKKY system on the two-dimensional triangular lattice

Abstract

We study the ordering properties of the isotropic RKKY Heisenberg model on the two-dimensional (2D) triangular lattice by extensive Monte Carlo simulations to get insights into the chiral-degenerate skyrmion crystal (SkX) of metallic magnets. Our Hamiltonian contains only the spin-quadratic RKKY interaction derived from the spherical Fermi surface, containing neither the nesting nor the many-body interaction. The SkX phase is stabilized under applied fields where the frustration associated with the oscillating nature of the RKKY interaction and the emergent many-body interactions generated by thermal fluctuations play important roles. Replica symmetry breaking, reported in our recent study on the 3D RKKY model [Phys. Rev. B 104, 184432 (2021)], turns out to be absent in the present 2D model. Implications to the SkX formation mechanism are discussed.