Quantum skyrmions in the antiferromagnetic triangular lattice

Abstract: Magnetic skyrmions are topological quasiparticles potentially useful for memory and computing devices. Antiferromagnetic (AF) skyrmions present no transverse deflection, making them suitable candidates for data storage applications. After the discovery of skyrmions with length scales comparable to the lattice constant, several works presented quantum analogues of classical ferromagnetic skyrmions in spin systems. However, studies about quantum analogues of AF skyrmions are still lacking. Here, we explore the phases of the AF quantum spin-1/2 Heisenberg model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions on the triangular lattice using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm. We study the magnetization profile, spin structure factor and quantum entanglement of the resulting ground states to characterize the corresponding phases and signal the emergence of quantum AF skyrmions. Our results support that three-sublattice quantum antiferromagnetic skyrmion textures are stabilized in a wide range of magnetic fields.