Investigating the stability and energetics of the hidden low temperature skyrmion phase in Zn/Ni doped Cu2OSeO3

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin structures with potential uses in low power devices. Cu2OSeO3 is a cubic material containing both skyrmions and other spin textures in a rich magnetic-phase diagram arising from the competition of interactions. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) has frequently been used to study the skyrmion state and related magnetic spin textures. Recently, a low temperature (LT) skyrmion state and a tilted conical state have been observed in Cu2OSeO3 with fields along the [001] axes, which are suggested to be stabilised by cubic anisotropy. Here we propose to use SANS to study these phases in three samples of Cu2OSeO3: Pristine, nickel and zinc doped. We wish to investigate the effect of doping on the stability of this exciting new skyrmion phase, and to perform micromagnetic simulations to evaluate the proposed stabilisation mechanism.