Room-temperature antiskyrmions in tetragonal $D_{2d}$ Heusler magnets: quantitative magnetostatics, material constants, zero-field stability, thin-film realization, and controllable dynamics

The 2017 discovery of magnetic antiskyrmions above room temperature in the tetragonal inverse-Heusler compound Mn1.4Pt0.9Pd0.1Sn established a new platform for topological spin textures, but left a coherent set of quantitative questions open: (i) the magnetostatic quadrupolar charge distribution of antiskyrmions is not yet quantitatively accounted for in a calibrated model of their energetics, size, stability and dynamics; (ii) the exchange stiffness $A$ and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya constant $D$ remain estimates rather than measured values; (iii) the mechanism of zero-field metastability (intrinsic symmetry-imposed stability versus anti-site-disorder pinning) is not causally established; (iv) no device-grade, chemically ordered $D_{2d}$ inverse-Heusler thin film hosting regular room-temperature antiskyrmion lattices exists; and (v) dynamics are only partially explored - current-driven motion has been demonstrated from 2024 onward, including in the Heusler host Mn1.4PtSn itself but only along natural one-dimensional stripe-domain or edge tracks, and in non-Heusler hosts likewise stripe-confined, while unconfined trajectory-controlled motion in the Heusler host, quadrupole-mediated manipulation by inhomogeneous fields, and compensated (antiferromagnetic) antiskyrmions remain unrealized.

Background

A magnetic skyrmion is a nanoscale, swirling spin texture with integer topological charge that can be stabilized in non-centrosymmetric magnets; its topological charge and small size make it a candidate information carrier for spintronic devices. The antisymmetric exchange interaction between neighboring spins (Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, DMI) fixes the winding sense of the texture and requires an inversion-broken crystal. In cubic chiral magnets (the B20 family, a non-centrosymmetric cubic structure adopted by compounds such as MnSi and FeGe) the DMI is isotropic and the skyrmion is circular. In crystals with the tetragonal point group $D_{2d}$ - which lacks inversion symmetry but has a fourfold improper rotation axis - the DMI is anisotropic: the spin winding is Bloch-like (magnetization rotating tangentially around the texture core) along one pair of crystal axes and Néel-like (magnetization rotating radially) along the perpendicular pair. The resulting particle is an antiskyrmion, the topological antiparticle of a skyrmion (opposite topological charge), with a broken cylindrical symmetry and a characteristic rhombic or square-like shape. Heusler compounds are an abundant family of intermetallics with tunable composition; the inverse-Heusler compound Mn1.4Pt0.9Pd0.1Sn (Mn-rich, $D_{2d}$) was the first material in which antiskyrmions were imaged, by Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM, a TEM mode that images in-plane magnetization via electron-beam deflection), in fields of a few tenths of a tesla applied along the tetragonal $c$ axis, at temperatures extending above room temperature (Nayak et al., Nature 548, 2017). Because the winding combines Bloch and Néel character, the antiskyrmion's out-of-plane magnetization distribution has a non-cylindrical, quadrupolar form, so its magnetostatic charge (the fictitious divergence charge whose long-range dipole-dipole interaction encodes the stray-field energy of the texture) carries a quadrupole moment rather than the monopole-like distribution of a skyrmion. The discovery paper's micromagnetic simulations used a continuum model with exchange stiffness $A$, anisotropic DMI strength $D$ and uniaxial magnetization anisotropy $K$, with $A$ and $D$ estimated from the observed texture sizes and field window, and without the magnetostatic (dipole-dipole) contribution. Two further experimental facts frame the open questions. First, in Pd-doped samples, isolated antiskyrmions remained metastable at zero applied field after field cycling; the authors attributed this to anti-site disorder (atoms exchanging lattice sites, e.g. Mn on Pt/Pd sites) acting as pinning centers, but stated this attribution tentatively. Second, the paper predicted - but could not test - distinctive dynamics: straight-line current-driven motion for compensated (antiferromagnetic-moment) antiskyrmions, and the possibility of steering antiskyrmions through their quadrupole moment using inhomogeneous magnetic fields. These predictions matter because an ordinary skyrmion driven by current is deflected transversally by the skyrmion Hall effect (its topological charge couples to the driving force), which hampers racetrack-type devices; a texture with compensating topological charge or with an addressable multipole moment could avoid or exploit this. Later work also introduced companion concepts used below: the topological Hall effect (an emergent electrical Hall signal produced by noncollinear textures, used as a transport fingerprint when real-space imaging is unavailable), and the discovery of antiskyrmions in a non-Heusler magnet with $S_4$ symmetry, (Fe,Ni,Pd)3P, which is the host used for the most recent non-Heusler dynamics experiments.

Problem Statement

Starting from the discovery of room-temperature antiskyrmions in the tetragonal inverse Heusler Mn1.4Pt0.9Pd0.1Sn (Nayak et al., Nature 548, 2017), establish a quantitative, experimentally grounded account of antiskyrmions in $D_{2d}$ Heusler magnets, sufficient to make them a controllable room-temperature texture platform. Within this single objective, the source work and its follow-up directions pose five parts of one quantitative, experimentally grounded research account: (1) a magnetostatics-inclusive, experimentally calibrated micromagnetic or atomistic model of the microscopic origin and quantitative role of the antiskyrmion's quadrupolar magnetostatic-charge distribution - absent from the original simulations - for its energetics, size, stability and dynamics; (2) an explicit strategy for measuring, rather than estimating, the exchange stiffness $A$ and anisotropic DMI constant $D$ (together with the magnetization anisotropy) of the actual compounds, and for embedding the measured values in quantitative models including magnetostatics and disorder; (3) a controlled-study design that would establish the causal mechanism of the zero-field metastability observed in Pd-doped samples - intrinsic crystal-symmetry-imposed stabilization versus anti-site-disorder pinning - by correlating atomic-scale disorder, pinning strength and metastable antiskyrmion populations, so that reproducible field-free stability can be engineered; (4) a route to antiskyrmion formation in further tetragonal inverse-Heusler compositions and in thin-film geometries amenable to device integration, up to chemically ordered films hosting regular room-temperature antiskyrmion lattices; and (5) falsifiable experimental predictions for the dynamics - current-driven motion of antiskyrmions in the Heusler host with controllable trajectories beyond confinement to natural one-dimensional tracks, manipulation through the magnetostatic quadrupole moment by inhomogeneous magnetic fields, and the realization of compensated (antiferromagnetic) antiskyrmions with straight-line current-driven motion. Note on current status: current-driven sliding in the Heusler host itself has been demonstrated since 2024 (He et al., Nature Materials 2024, in Mn1.4PtSn at room temperature and zero field, along natural helical stripe-domain tracks; and edge-track motion of an isolated fractional antiskyrmion, He et al., Physical Review Letters 2026), and motion in non-Heusler hosts is likewise stripe-confined; the outstanding targets are therefore trajectory-controlled (unconfined, non-natural-track) motion in the Heusler host, quadrupole-mediated manipulation by inhomogeneous fields, and compensated antiskyrmions.

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