Multiple skyrmion crystal phases by itinerant frustration in centrosymmetric tetragonal magnets

Abstract

A skyrmion crystal (SkX) expressed as a multiple number of spiral modulations manifests itself not only in its peculiar magnetic texture but also in nontrivial transport properties originating from an emergent magnetic field. We here report our numerical results for multiple SkXs in a centrosymmetric tetragonal crystal system. By performing simulated annealing for an effective spin model for itinerant magnets, we find that three types of the SkXs with the skyrmion numbers of one and two, which are characterized by different superpositions of helices, are stabilized in the ground state, and are transformed by an external magnetic field. The essence of the emergent multiple SkXs is lied in itinerant frustration where exchange interactions are competed in momentum space due to the nature of itinerant electrons.