Frustration-stabilized skyrmions in centrosymmetric compounds

Skyrmions are chiral magnetic spin textures that exist in a variety of different magnetic materials. Skyrmions are usually stabilized in noncentrosymmetric chiral materials by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, and we have shown the muSR is a powerful technique to study skyrmions in these systems. Recently, skyrmions have been discovered in the two centrosymmetric compounds Gd3Ru4Al12 and GdPdSi3 where they are thought to be stabilized instead by magnetic frustration. Complex magnetic states that are not yet well understood have also been found in the related compound Tb2PdSi3. We propose to perform muSR measurements of Gd3Ru4Al12 and Tb2PdSi3 to study this novel frustration-stabilized skyrmion state, and the related magnetic states, which will complement our recent ISIS measurements on GdPdSi3. This will help uncover the physics behind this new stabilization mechanism for skyrmions.