• Letter

Rhombic skyrmion lattice coupled with orthorhombic structural distortion in EuAl4

Masaki Gen, Rina Takagi, Yoshito Watanabe, Shunsuke Kitou, Hajime Sagayama, Naofumi Matsuyama, Yoshimitsu Kohama, Akihiko Ikeda, Yoshichika Ōnuki, Takashi Kurumaji, Taka-hisa Arima, and Shinichiro Seki
Phys. Rev. B 107, L020410 – Published 25 January 2023
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Abstract

The centrosymmetric tetragonal itinerant magnet EuAl4 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 EuAl4 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 0.10% and 0.03% orthorhombic structural distortion within the ab plane, respectively. We propose that the coupling between the spin system and the lattice deformation should be essential for the structural instability in EuAl4, 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.

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  • Received 28 September 2022
  • Revised 3 January 2023
  • Accepted 10 January 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.107.L020410

©2023 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Physical Systems
Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Masaki Gen1,2,*, Rina Takagi2,3,4,5, Yoshito Watanabe1, Shunsuke Kitou2, Hajime Sagayama6, Naofumi Matsuyama7, Yoshimitsu Kohama7, Akihiko Ikeda8, Yoshichika Ōnuki2, Takashi Kurumaji1, Taka-hisa Arima1,2, and Shinichiro Seki2,3,4

  • 1Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8561, Japan
  • 2RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako 351-0198, Japan
  • 3Institute of Engineering Innovation, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan
  • 4Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
  • 5PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Kawaguchi 332-0012, Japan
  • 6Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba 305-0801, Japan
  • 7Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8581, Japan
  • 8Department of Engineering Science, University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan

  • *masaki.gen@riken.jp

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Issue

Vol. 107, Iss. 2 — 1 January 2023

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