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Magnetoelastic properties in the high-temperature magnetic phase of the skyrmion compound GdRu2Si2

J. Sourd1, D. A. Mayoh2, G. Balakrishnan2, M. Uhlarz1, J. Wosnitza1,3, and S. Zherlitsyn1

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 134416 – Published 9 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ht3d-1kj8

Abstract

We investigated the magnetoelastic properties of a GdRu2Si2 single crystal under a magnetic field applied along the crystallographic [001] and [110] directions. We report a series of strong anomalies in the sound velocity that is consistent with the complex phase diagram reported previously for this compound. In particular, in our study we focus on the recently identified magnetic phase in the high-temperature region. We show that while this phase is easily destroyed for magnetic fields applied along [001], it is rather stable for fields along [110]. Furthermore, we introduce a Landau theory and a microscopic toy model describing the elastic response at zero field. We reproduce qualitatively the observed anomalies for different acoustic modes, which suggest that the high-temperature phase weakly breaks the symmetry between the [100] and [010] directions. We discuss candidate magnetic structures consistent with this high-temperature phase, based on the comparison of elastic anomalies for a few different magnetic states.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 134416– Published 9 April, 2026
  • Received 20 November 2025
  • Revised 3 February 2026
  • Accepted 9 March 2026
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