Spin Vortices and Skyrmions of a Single Electron in Inhomogeneous Magnetic Fields

Abstract

We study the spin textures of a confined two-dimensional electron in inhomogeneous magnetic fields. These fields can either be external or effective fields due to a background magnetic texture in the plane in which the electron resides. By analytical considerations, WKB-type approximations, and by performing numerical diagonalizations we show that the in-plane spin field components of a single electron can form vortices while the total spin field can become a skyrmion. Most interestingly, we find that topological trivial magnetic fields can induce topological spin field configurations in the eigenstates of the electron due to quantum effects.