# Instability of skyrmions in magnetic fields

Mougel, Loic; Buhl, Patrick M.; Nemoto, Ryohei; Balashov, Timofey; Hervé, Marie; Skolaut, Julian; Yamada, Toyo Kazu; Dupé, Bertrand; Wulfhekel, Wulf

##### Abstract:
In this combined experimental and theoretical work, we report on the evolution of the skyrmion radius and its destruction in the system Co/Ru(0001) when an out-of-plane magnetic field is applied. At low fields, skyrmions are metastable and display an elliptical instability in which along the short axis, the spin texture approaches that of the spin-spiral phase and the long axis expands in order to go back to the spin-spiral ground state. At high fields, we observe round skyrmions of finite size up to the collapse field B$_{c}$, where they are destroyed and the topological charge is annihilated. We estimate B$_{c}$ via numerical methods based on magnetization dynamics simulations parametrized by density functional theory calculations and compare it to experimental scanning tunneling microscopy observations obtained at ≈ 30 mK.

 Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Physikalisches Institut (PHI) Publikationstyp Zeitschriftenaufsatz Publikationsmonat/-jahr 06.2020 Sprache Englisch Identifikator ISSN: 0003-6951, 1077-3118 KITopen-ID: 1000122721 Erschienen in Applied physics letters Verlag American Institute of Physics (AIP) Band 116 Heft 26 Seiten Art.Nr. 262406 Nachgewiesen in DimensionsWeb of ScienceScopus
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