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As two separate branches of the strongly correlated electronic systems, magnetic skyrmions and spin liquids have received enormous attentions for their own merits. The former sees the introduction of topology into real-space magnetic orders and gives birth to a variety of topological spintronic devices [1,2], while the latter overcomes conventional magnetic orders through quantum fluctuations and/or geometrical frustrations [3,4], and has been the pursuit of generations of physicists. In this presentation, we will see how these two seemingly unrelated branches come together in a spiral spin-liquid, where the spins are fluctuating collectively as spirals [5]. Using neutron diffuse scattering, we confirmed the existence of a spiral spin-liquid state in the spinel MnSc2S4 [6]. Interestingly, at lower temperatures where MnSc2S4 enters a long-range ordered spiral state, the application of a magnetic field is found to re-mix the spiral orders, leading to the emergence of a fractional antiferromagnetic skyrmion lattice [7].
[1] M. Hirschberger et al. Nat. Commun. 10, 5831 (2019)
[2] N. D. Khanh et al. Nat. Nanotech. 15, 444 (2020)
[3] S. Gao et al. arXiv2101.12363 (2021)
[4] S. Gao et al. PRL 120, 137201 (2018)
[5] D. Bergman et al. Nat. Phys. 3, 487 (2007)
[6] S. Gao et al. Nat. Phys. 13, 157 (2017)
[7] S. Gao et al. Nature 586, 37 (2020)
Shang Gao received his doctoral degree in physics from University of Geneva in Switzerland in 2017. After that, he continued his research on frustrated magnetism at RIKEN (Institute for Physical and Chemical Research) in Japan (2018-2020) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in USA (2020-now). His research concentrates on using neutron and x-ray scattering to study novel spin correlations in solids with potential applications for the next-generation electronic devices. He received the Young Scientist Award of the Swiss Neutron Scattering Society in 2018 for his works on frustrated magnets.