Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected nanoscale spin textures with particle-like properties. In bulk cubic helimagnets, they appear under applied magnetic fields and condense spontaneously into a lattice in a narrow region of the phase diagram just below the magnetic ordering temperature, the so-called A-phase. Theory, however, predicts skyrmions to be locally stable in a wide range of magnetic fields and temperatures. Our neutron diffraction measurements reveal the formation of skyrmion states in large areas of the magnetic phase diagram, from the lowest temperatures up to the A-phase. We show that nascent and disappearing spiral states near critical lines catalyze topological charge changing processes, leading to the formation and destruction of skyrmionic states at low temperatures, which are thermodynamically stable or metastable depending on the orientation and strength of the magnetic field. Skyrmions are surprisingly resilient to high magnetic fields: the memory of skyrmion lattice states persists in the field polarized state, even when the skyrmion lattice signal has disappeared. These findings highlight the paramount role of magnetic anisotropies in stabilizing skyrmionic states and open up new routes for manipulating these quasi-particles towards energy-efficient spintronics applications.@en

We present a comprehensive Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) and Neutron Spin Echo Spectroscopy (NSE) study of the structural and dynamical aspects of the helimagnetic transition in Fe_1-xCo_xSi with x = 0.30. In contrast to the sharp transition observed in the archetype chiral magnet MnSi, the transition in Fe_1-xCo_xSi is gradual and long-range helimagnetic ordering coexists with short-range correlations over a wide temperature range. The dynamics are more complex than in MnSi and involve long relaxation times with a stretched exponential relaxation which persists even under magnetic field. These results in conjunction with an analysis of the hierarchy of the relevant length scales show that the helimagnetic transition in Fe_1-xCo_xSi differs substantially from the transition in MnSi and question the validity of a universal approach to the helimagnetic transition in chiral magnets.@en

The reference chiral helimagnet MnSi is the first system where Skyrmion lattice correlations have been reported. At a zero magnetic field the transition at TC to the helimagnetic state is of first order. Above TC, in a region dominated by precursor phenomena, neutron scattering shows the buildup of strong chiral fluctuating correlations over the surface of a sphere with radius 2π/, where is the pitch of the helix. It has been suggested that these fluctuating correlations drive the helical transition to first order following a scenario proposed by Brazovskii for liquid crystals. We present a comprehensive neutron scattering study under magnetic fields, which provides evidence that this is not the case. The sharp first order transition persists for magnetic fields up to 0.4 T whereas the fluctuating correlations weaken and start to concentrate along the field direction already above 0.2 T. Our results thus disconnect the first order nature of the transition from the precursor fluctuating correlations. They also show no indication for a tricritical point, where the first order transition crosses over to second order with increasing magnetic field. In this light, the nature of the first order helical transition and the precursor phenomena above TC, both of general relevance to chiral magnetism, remain an open question.

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Small angle neutron scattering measurements on a bulk single crystal of the doped chiral magnet Fe1-xCoxSi with x=0.3 reveal a pronounced effect of the magnetic history and cooling rates on the magnetic phase diagram. The extracted phase diagrams are qualitatively different for zero and field cooling and reveal a metastable skyrmion lattice phase outside the A phase for the latter case. These thermodynamically metastable skyrmion lattice correlations coexist with the conical phase and can be enhanced by increasing the cooling rate. They appear in a wide region of the phase diagram at temperatures below the A phase but also at fields considerably smaller or higher than the fields required to stabilize the A phase.

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