Quantum skyrmion lattices in Heisenberg ferromagnets

Abstract

Skyrmions are topological magnetic textures that can arise in noncentrosymmetric ferromagnetic materials. In most systems experimentally investigated to date, skyrmions emerge as classical objects. However, the discovery of skyrmions with nanometer length scales has sparked interest in their quantum properties. Here, we simulate the ground states of two-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg lattices with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and discover a broad region in the zero-temperature phase diagram which hosts quantum skyrmion lattices. We argue that the quantum skyrmion lattice phase can be detected experimentally in the magnetization profile via local magnetic polarization measurements as well as in the spin structure factor measurable via neutron scattering experiments. Finally, we explore the resulting quantum skyrmion state, analyze its real-space polarization profile and show that it is a nonclassical state featuring entanglement between quasiparticle and environment mainly localized near the boundary spins of the skyrmion.