Frustration-driven magnetic fluctuations as the origin of the low-temperature skyrmion phase in Co7Zn7Mn6

Magnetic skyrmions in chiral cubic helimagnets, are stabilized by thermal fluctuations over a narrow region directly below the magnetic ordering temperature. Due to often being touted for use in applications, there is high demand to identify new mechanism that can expand the equilibrium skyrmion phases where these topological vortices may display an enhanced robustness against external perturbations, such as magnetic fields, due to a larger magnetic order parameter.

Here, from combination of quantum beam probes on the chiral magnet Co₇Zn₇Mn₆, we unveiled a direct correlation between the stability of its low-temperature skyrmion phase, and a concomitant enhancement of an underlying magnetic fluctuation rate that is driven by geometric magnetic frustration. The influences of other leading skyrmion stability mechanisms, such as those derived from thermal fluctuations and cubic anisotropies, are shown to be weak in this system. We therefore advance the existence of a fundamental mechanism for stabilizing topological skyrmions in Co₇Zn₇Mn₆chiral magnet that draws upon magnetic frustration as the key ingredient.