Abstract
The centrosymmetric tetragonal itinerant magnet exhibits an intricate magnetic phase diagram including rhombic and square skyrmion-lattice (SkL) phases in the external magnetic field. Here, we report a multi-axis dilatometric investigation of by means of a newly designed fiber-Bragg-grating technique complemented by a resonant x-ray scattering experiment, revealing anisotropic magnetostriction and magnetovolume effect associated with successive phase transitions. The rhombic and square SkL phases are found to possess % and % orthorhombic structural distortion within the plane, respectively. We propose that the coupling between the spin system and the lattice deformation should be essential for the structural instability in , yielding a rich variety of topological spin textures with spontaneous rotational-symmetry breaking as well as a potential controllability of the SkL phases by uniaxial stress or pressure.
- Received 28 September 2022
- Revised 3 January 2023
- Accepted 10 January 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.107.L020410
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