Magnetic skyrmions and their lattices in triplet superconductors

Abstract

A complete topological classification of solutions in SO(3) symmetric Ginzburg-Landau free energy has been performed and a new class of solutions in weak external magnetic field carrying two units of magnetic flux has been identified. These solutions, magnetic skyrmions, do not have a singular core as Abrikosov vortices do and at low magnetic field they become lighter for strongly type II superconductors. As a consequence, the lower critical magnetic field H-c1 is reduced by a factor of In kappa. Magnetic skyrmions repel each other as 1/r at distances much larger than magnetic penetration depth lambda forming a relatively robust triangular lattice. Magnetization near H-c1 increases gradually as (H-Hcl)(2). This behavior agrees very well with experiments on heavy fermion superconductor UPt3. Newly discovered Ru based compounds Sr2RuO4 and Sr2YRu1-xCuxO6 are other possible candidates to possess skyrmion lattices. Deviations from exact SO(3) symmetry are also studied, [S0163-1829(99)06425-5].