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  • Letter

Spontaneous square versus hexagonal nanoscale skyrmion lattices in Fe/Ir(111)

Mara Gutzeit1, Tim Drevelow1, Moritz A. Goerzen1, Soumyajyoti Haldar1,*, and Stefan Heinze1,2

  • 1Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, University of Kiel, Leibnizstrasse 15, 24098 Kiel, Germany
  • 2Kiel Nano, Surface, and Interface Science (KiNSIS), University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

  • *Corresponding author: haldar@physik.uni-kiel.de
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Phys. Rev. B 108, L060405 – Published 24 August, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.L060405

Abstract

We study the emergence of spontaneous skyrmion lattices in an Fe monolayer in fcc and hcp stacking on the Ir(111) surface using density functional theory (DFT). For fcc-Fe/Ir(111) we find the well-known square nanoskyrmion lattice. However, for hcp-Fe/Ir(111) the hexagonal skyrmion lattice previously proposed based on experiments is energetically unfavorable with respect to a hexagonal multi-Q state with nearly collinear magnetic moments. By mapping our DFT calculations to an atomistic spin model we demonstrate that the interplay of pairwise exchange, higher-order exchange, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is decisive for the symmetry and collinearity of the obtained spin lattice.

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Phys. Rev. B 108, L060405– Published 24 August, 2023
  • Received 31 January 2023
  • Revised 19 June 2023
  • Accepted 10 August 2023
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