Spiral Spin-Liquid and Topological Textures in MnSc2S4

F. A. GÓMEZ ALBARRACÍN; O. ZAHARKO; H. D. ROSALES; D. C. CABRA; S. GAO

Toulouse

Conferencia; XXth International Conference On Recent Progress in Many Body Theories; 2019

Universite Paul Sabatier

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the emergence of topological phases in condensed matter physics. In particular the magnetic skyrmion, a vortex-like spin structure, is at the center of these studies due to their important role in electronic transport in connection with technological devices. Periodic arrangements of skyrmions, named skyrmion crystal (SkX) phases, have been observed experimentally, and have given rise to a large number of theoretical works. The most simple situation where SkX phases are stabilized corresponds to a ferromagnetic system including Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions under a magnetic field . Also, it has been shown that the SkX phase can be induced by competing interactions in ferromagnetic and mixed ferro/antiferromagnetic systems. MnSc2S4 is a compound that crystallizes in the normal spinel structure, where the magnetic ions Mn2+ form a diamond lattice, consisting of two interpenetrating fcc lattices. Due to the possible presence of frustrating interactions, thismagnetic compound is an excellent example for study exotic states such as spiral spin liquid and and multiple-q structures under applied magnetic fields. Recent experimental results unravel evidence of a spiral spin liquid at low temperature which can be obtained by a J1-J2 model on the diamond lattice, for specific a ratio of the ferromagnetic (J1)and antiferromagnegtic (J2) coupling. However, neutron single crystal diffraction measurements suggest the presence of a triple-q state that can not be explained by such a simple model. Here we present preliminary results obtained by Monte-Carlo simulations and the Luttinger-Tisza approximation, with the aim to explore additional interactionsin the microscopic spin Hamiltonian, and establish a minimal model where skyrmion-like structures can be stabilized.