High-topological-number skyrmions and phase transition in two-dimensional frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ magnets

Abstract

With the rapidly expanded field of two-dimensional(2D) magnetic materials, the frustrated magnetic skyrmions are attracting growing interest recently. Here, based on hexagonal close-packed (HCP) lattice of $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg spins model, we systematically investigate the frustrated skyrmions and phase transition by micromagnetic simulations and first-principles calculations. The results show that four spin phases of antiferromagnetic, labyrinth domain, skyrmion and ferromagnetic textures are determined by the identified ranges of $J_1$-$J_2$. Importantly, skyrmion phase with an increasing topological number ($Q$) covers a wider $J_1$-$J_2$ area. Then, the diameter of skyrmions can be tuned by the frustration strength ($|J_2/J_1|$) or external magnetic field. Besides, a phase transition from N$\acute{e}$el to Bloch type skyrmion is observed due to the change of the helicity with the variation of $|J_2/J_1|$. Furthermore, as increasing magnetic field, the skyrmions with high $Q$ ($\ge 3$) tend to split into the ones with $Q=1$, thereby achieving a lower systematic energy. Additionally, we find that the CoCl$_2$ monolayer satisfies the requirement of the frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ magnet, and the related magnetic behaviors agree with the above conclusions. The frustration-induced skyrmions are stable without the manipulation of temperature and magnetic field. Our results may open a possible way toward spintronic applications based on High-topological-number and nanoscale topological spin textures of skyrmions.