Magnetoelastic Coupling-Driven Chiral Spin Textures: A Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion-like Array
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 066702 – Published 11 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5csz-pw7x
Abstract
We theoretically demonstrate that sufficiently strong magnetoelastic coupling can change the ground state of otherwise uniform spin systems to chiral spin configurations. More specifically, we show that a periodic array of chiral spin textures can spontaneously emerge in a two-dimensional ferromagnetic system on a substrate—even in the absence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The resulting spin texture resembles a skyrmion-antiskyrmion lattice, characterized by alternating scalar spin chirality and a nonuniform but sign-preserving out-of-plane spin profile. Our analysis reveals that such patterns form naturally when the magnetoelastic interaction is sufficiently strong, while the coupling between flexural phonons and the substrate is sufficiently weak. These findings uncover a previously unexplored mechanism for chiral spin texture formation driven purely by magnetoelastic coupling, signaling potential utilities of materials with strong magnetoelastic responses.
