Skyrmions and antiskyrmions in monoaxial chiral magnets

Abstract

We show that competition between local interactions in monoaxial chiral magnets provides the stability of two-dimensional (2D) solitons with identical energies but opposite topological charges. These skyrmions and antiskyrmions represent metastable states in a wide range of parameters above the transition into the saturated ferromagnetic phase. The symmetry of the underlying micromagnetic functional gives rise to soliton zero modes allowing efficient control of their translational movement by the frequency of the circulating external magnetic field. We also discuss the role of demagnetizing fields in the energy balance between skyrmion and antiskyrmion and in their stability.