Chiral magnetic textures in itinerant magnets

A magnetic skyrmion, which is characterized by a nontrivial topological spin texture in magnets, have been attracting much interest in condensed matter physics. Since the discovery of a skyrmion crystal, which corresponds to a periodic array of the skyrmion spin textures, in 2009, noncentrosymmetric magnets with the spin-orbit coupling have been good platforms of hosting the skyrmion crystals. Meanwhile, recent theoretical and experimental studies have clarified several different origins of the skyrmion crystals in centrosymmetric magnets by introducing the frustrated exchange interaction in localized magnets and the multiple-spin interaction arising from the spin-charge coupling in itinerant magnets. In the presentation, we discuss the stabilization mechanisms of the skyrmion crystals on the basis of the microscopic spin model with the symmetric and antisymmetric anisotropic interactions [1,2]. We present important interactions and magnetic anisotropy to stabilize the square- and triangular-shaped skyrmion crystals from the ground state to the finite-temperature state in centrosymmetric magnets.