Sewing skyrmion and antiskyrmion by quadrupole of Bloch points

Abstract

We report three-dimensional topological spin configurations including a novel form of skyrmion-antiskyrmion coupling in D2d chiral magnets. The skyrmion-antiskyrmion coupled string, consisting of skyrmions located in the near-surface layers and antiskyrmions in the interior of the nanostructured sample that are sewn together by emergent Bloch points, is a hybrid three-dimensional soliton solution resulting from the application of micromagnetic equations. We further provide experimental evidence of these 3D topological skyrmionic strings in a FeNiPdP chiral magnet with S4 symmetry. Our results demonstrate reversible topological magnetic transformations between skyrmion-antiskyrmion and skyrmion-bubble strings, which are mediated by the creation and annihilation of Bloch points.