Zero-field Skyrmions with a High Topological Number in Itinerant Magnets

Abstract: Magnetic skyrmions are swirling spin textures with topologically protected noncoplanarity. Recently, skyrmions with the topological number of unity have been extensively studied in both experiment and theory. We here show that a skyrmion crystal with an unusually high topological number of two is stabilized in itinerant magnets at zero magnetic field. The results are obtained for a minimal Kondo lattice model on a triangular lattice by an unrestricted large-scale numerical simulation and variational calculations. We find that the topological number can be switched by a magnetic field as $2\leftrightarrow 1\leftrightarrow 0$. The skyrmion crystals are formed by the superpositions of three spin density waves induced by the Fermi surface effect, and hence, the size of skyrmions can be controlled by the band structure and electron filling. We also discuss the charge and spin textures of itinerant electrons in the skyrmion crystals which are directly obtained in our numerical simulations.