Antiferromagnetic Skyrmions and Skyrmion Density Wave in Rashba Hund's Insulator

Abstract

We discover magnetic phases hosting highly-elusive and technologically important antiferromagnetic skyrmion quasiparicles in a model for Rashba-coupled Hund's insulator. The results are based on unbiased simulations of a classical superexchange model derived, in this work, from a realistic microscopic electronic Hamiltonian. We also discover a novel skyrmion density wave groundstate characterized by a ($Q,Q$) modulation in the local skyrmion density map. A unique inhomogeneous state characterized by a circular pattern in spin structure factor and filamentary real-space textures is identified as the parent of sparse antiferromagnetic skyrmions. We predict that the magnetic states reported here can be realized in thin films of multiorbital systems involving $4d$ or $5d$ transition metals.