Robust metastable skyrmions with tunable size in the chiral magnet FePtMo3 N

The synthesis of new materials that can host magnetic skyrmions and their thorough experimental and theoretical characterization are essential for future technological applications. The β-Mn-type compound FePtMo3N is one such novel material that belongs to the chiral space group P4132, where the antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is allowed due to the absence of inversion symmetry. We report the results of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements of FePtMo3N and demonstrate that its magnetic ground state is a long-period spin helix with a Curie temperature of 222 K. The magnetic field-induced redistribution of the SANS intensity showed that the helical structure transforms to a lattice of skyrmions at ∼13 mT at temperatures just below TC. Our key observation is that the skyrmion state in FePtMo3N is robust against field cooling down to the lowest temperatures. Moreover, once the metastable state is prepared by field cooling, the skyrmion lattice exists even in zero field. Furthermore, we show that the skyrmion size in FePtMo3N exhibits high sensitivity to the sample temperature and can be continuously tuned between 120 and 210 nm. This offers different prospects in the control of topological properties of chiral magnets. © 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society

Anisotropic fractal magnetic domain pattern in bulk Mn1.4PtSn

The tetragonal compound Mn1.4PtSn with D2d symmetry recently attracted attention as the first known material that hosts magnetic antiskyrmions, which differ from the skyrmions known so far by their internal structure. The latter have been found in a number of magnets with the chiral crystal structure. In previous works, the existence of antiskyrmions in Mn1.4PtSn was unambiguously demonstrated in real space by means of Lorentz transmission electron microscopy on thin-plate samples (∼100 nm thick). In the present study, we used small-angle neutron scattering and magnetic force microscopy to perform reciprocal- and real-space imaging of the magnetic texture of bulk Mn1.4PtSn single crystals at different temperatures and in applied magnetic field. We found that the magnetic texture in the bulk differs significantly from that of thin-plate samples. Instead of spin helices or an antiskyrmion lattice, we observe an anisotropic fractal magnetic pattern of closure domains in zero field above the spin-reorientation transition temperature, which transforms into a set of bubble domains in high field. Below the spin-reorientation transition temperature the strong in-plane anisotropy as well as the fractal self-affinity in zero field is gradually lost, while the formation of bubble domains in high field remains robust. The results of our study highlight the importance of dipole-dipole interactions in thin-plate samples for the stabilization of antiskyrmions and identify criteria which should guide the search for potential (anti)skyrmion host materials. Moreover, they provide consistent interpretations of the previously reported magnetotransport anomalies of the bulk crystals. © 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society

Detection of antiskyrmions by topological Hall effect in Heusler compounds

Heusler compounds having D2d crystal symmetry gained much attention recently due to the stabilization of a vortexlike spin texture called antiskyrmions in thin lamellae of Mn1.4Pt0.9Pd0.1Sn as reported in the work of Nayak et al. [Nature (London) 548, 561 (2017)10.1038/nature23466]. Here we show that bulk Mn1.4Pt0.9Pd0.1Sn undergoes a spin-reorientation transition from a collinear ferromagnetic to a noncollinear configuration of Mn moments below 135 K, which is accompanied by the emergence of a topological Hall effect. We tune the topological Hall effect in Pd and Rh substituted Mn1.4PtSn Heusler compounds by changing the intrinsic magnetic properties and spin textures. A unique feature of the present system is the observation of a zero-field topological Hall resistivity with a sign change which indicates the robust formation of antiskyrmions. © 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society

Observation of KS0K_S^0 semileptonic decays with CMD-2 detector

The decay $K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu$ has been observed by the CMD-2 detector at the e^+e^- collider VEPP-2M at Novosibirsk. Of 6 million produced $K_L^0K_S^0$ pairs, $75 \pm 13$ events of the $K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu$ decay were selected. The corresponding branching ratio is $B(K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu)=(7.2 \pm 1.4)\times10^{-4}$. This result is consistent with the evaluation of $B(K_S^0 \to \pi e \nu)$ from the $K_L^0$ semileptonic rate and $K_S^0$ lifetime assuming $\Delta S=\Delta Q$ .Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, LaTex2e. Submitted to Phys.Lett.

Study of the process e+e- to pi+pi-pi+pi-pi0 with CMD-2 detector

The process e+e- to pi+ pi- pi+ pi- pi0 has been studied in the center of mass energy range 1280 -- 1380 MeV using 3.0 1/pb of data collected with the CMD-2 detector in Novosibirsk. Analysis shows that the cross section of the five pion production is dominated by the contributions of the eta pi+pi- and omega pi+pi- intermediate states.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure. Submitted to Phys. Lett.

Observation of the conversion decay ϕ→π0e+e−\phi\to\pi^0e^+e^- at CMD-2

Using 15.1^{-1} of data collected by CMD-2 in the $\phi$-meson energy range, the branching ratio of the conversion decay $\phi\to\pi^0e^+e^-$ has been measured for the first time: B(\phi\to\pi^0e^+e^-) = (1.22 \pm 0.34 \pm 0.21) \cdot 10 ^{-5}.Comment: 13 pages, 6 PostScript figures, uses refmerge.sty. To be published in Phys. Lett.

Study of the Process e+e−→KL0KS0e^+e^- \to K^0_L K^0_S in the C.M.Energy Range 1.05-1.38 GeV with CMD-2

The process $e^+e^- \to K^0_L K^0_S$ has been studied with the CMD-2 detector using about 950 events detected in the center-of-mass energy range from 1.05 to 1.38 GeV. The cross section exceeds the expectation based on the contributions of the rho(770), omega(782) and phi(1020) mesons only.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, uses elsart.cls, submitted to Physics Letters

Cross section of the reaction e+e−→π+π−π+π−e^+ e^- \to \pi^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^- below 1 GeV at CMD-2

Using 3.07 ${pb}^{-1}$ of data collected in the energy range 0.60-0.97 GeV by CMD-2, about 150 events of the process \epm \to \pch have been selected. The energy dependence of the cross section agrees with the assumption of the $a_1(1260) \pi$ intermediate state which is dominant above 1 GeV. For the first time \fourpi events are observed at the $\rho$ meson energy. Under the assumption that all these events come from the $\rho$ meson decay, the value of the cross section at the $\rho$ meson peak corresponds to the following decay width: \Gamma(\rho^0 \to \fourpi) = (2.8 \pm 1.4 \pm 0.5) {keV} or to the branching ratio B(\rho^0 \to \fourpi) = (1.8 \pm 0.9 \pm 0.3) \cdot 10 ^{-5}.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Study of the radiative decay ϕ→ηγ\phi \to \eta \gamma with CMD-2 detector

Using the $1.9 pb^{-1}$ of data collected with the CMD-2 detector at VEPP-2M the decay mode $\phi \to \eta \gamma$, $\eta \to \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ has been studied. The obtained branching ratio is B($\phi \to \eta \gamma) = (1.18 \pm 0.03 \pm 0.06)$.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, LaTex2e, to be published in Phys. Lett.

Measurement of omega meson parameters in pi^+pi^-pi^0 decay mode with CMD-2

About 11 200 e^+e^- -> omega -> pi^+pi^-pi^0 events selected in the center of mass energy range from 760 to 810 MeV were used for the measurement of the \omega meson parameters. The following results have been obtained: sigma _{0}=(1457 \pm 23 \pm 19)nb, m_{\omega}=(782.71 \pm 0.07 \pm 0.04) MeV/c^{2}, \Gamma_{\omega}=(8.68 \pm 0.23 \pm 0.10) MeV, \Gamma_{e^+e^-}\cdot Br (\omega -> pi^+pi^-pi^0)= (0.528 \pm 0.012 \pm 0.007) \cdot 10^{-3} MeV.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure