Imaging the coupling between itinerant electrons and localised moments in the centrosymmetric skyrmion magnet GdRu<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33230104.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-19751-4 and PMC identifier 7684290.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Magnetic skyrmions were thought to be stabilised only in inversion-symmetry breaking structures, but skyrmion lattices were recently discovered in inversion symmetric Gd-based compounds, spurring questions of the stabilisation mechanism. A natural consequence of a recent theoretical proposal, a coupling between itinerant electrons and localised magnetic moments, is that the skyrmions are amenable to detection using even non-magnetic probes such as spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunnelling microscopy (SI-STM). Here SI-STM observations of GdRu<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub> reveal patterns in the local density of states that indeed vary with the underlying magnetic structures. These patterns are qualitatively reproduced by model calculations which assume exchange coupling between itinerant electrons and localised moments. These findings provide a clue to understand the skyrmion formation mechanism in GdRu<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>.