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Title: Fractional antiferromagnetic skyrmion lattice induced by anisotropic couplings. Author: Gao S, Rosales HD, Gómez Albarracín FA, Tsurkan V, Kaur G, Fennell T, Steffens P, Boehm M, Čermák P, Schneidewind A, Ressouche E, Cabra DC, Rüegg C, Zaharko O. Journal: Nature; 2020 Oct; 586(7827):37-41. PubMed ID: 32968283. Abstract: Magnetic skyrmions are topological solitons with a nanoscale winding spin texture that hold promise for spintronics applications1-4. Skyrmions have so far been observed in a variety of magnets that exhibit nearly parallel alignment for neighbouring spins, but theoretically skyrmions with anti-parallel neighbouring spins are also possible. Such antiferromagnetic skyrmions may allow more flexible control than conventional ferromagnetic skyrmions5-10. Here, by combining neutron scattering measurements and Monte Carlo simulations, we show that a fractional antiferromagnetic skyrmion lattice is stabilized in MnSc2S4 through anisotropic couplings. The observed lattice is composed of three antiferromagnetically coupled sublattices, and each sublattice is a triangular skyrmion lattice that is fractionalized into two parts with an incipient meron (half-skyrmion) character11,12. Our work demonstrates that the theoretically proposed antiferromagnetic skyrmions can be stabilized in real materials and represents an important step towards their implementation in spintronic devices.[Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]