Engineering antiferromagnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions at metallic interfaces

We identify a mechanism to convert skyrmions and antiskyrmions into their antiferromagnetic (AFM) counterparts via interfacial engineering. The key idea is to combine the properties of an antiferromagnet and a spin-orbit (SO) coupled metal. Utilizing hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) simulations for a generic microscopic electronic Hamiltonian for the interfacial layers, we explicitly show the emergence of AFM skyrmions and AFM antiskyrmions. We further show that an effective spin Hamiltonian provides a simpler understanding of the results. We discuss the role of electronic itinerancy in determining the nature of magnetic textures and demonstrate that the mechanism also allows for tuning of antiskyrmion size without changing the SO coupling.