Topological Spin Textures in Magnetic Materials

The first experimental realization of the topological spin texture ‘skyrmion’ in B20 chiral magnet MnSi sought huge research attention on the materials hosting such spin textures. Among all topological spin textures, skyrmions and anti-skyrmions are being studied extensively due to their applications in future magnetic and spintronic devices. Stabilizing these topological spin textures required a typical environment such as non-centrosymmetric magnetic materials with Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction and centrosymmetric magnetic materials with uniaxial anisotropy, dipolar interaction, and magneto-crystalline anisotropy, etc. The stabilization of skyrmion and anti-skyrmion is dictated by the particular type of DM (isotropic or anisotropic) interaction. The direct real space realization/identification of these topological spin textures requires specific experimental techniques. Some indirect (but not robust techniques, e.g., the topological hall effect) also exist to explore the topological spin textures in magnetic materials. Apart from this, the topological spin textures in different types of magnetic materials (ferro/ferri/antiferromagnetic) have different advantages and disadvantages.