Metastability of the Topological Magnetic Orders in the Chiral Antiferromagnet EuPtSi

Abstract: We report resistivity and Hall effect measurements in the chiral antiferromagnet EuPtSi. Depending on the magnetic field orientation with respect to the crystallographic axes, EuPtSi presents different topological magnetic phases below the N\'eel temperature $T_N=4.05$K. In particular, for a field $H \parallel$ [111], it exhibits the well known skyrmion lattice A-phase inside the conical phase between $T=0.45$K and $T_N$ in the field range from 0.8T to 1.4T. Remarkably, the skyrmion lattice state in EuPtSi, composed of nanoscale skyrmions, can be extended down to very low temperature (lower than 0.1K) through field-cooling regardless of the cooling rate and of the magnetic history. Similarly the metastability of the A'- and B-phases ($H \parallel$ [100]) at low temperature is evidenced by our measurements. These results suggest that EuPtSi is a peculiar example where the competition between the topological stability and the thermal agitation can lead to metastable quantum skyrmion state.