Antisymmetric breathing in altermagnetic skyrmions

Abstract

A skyrmion in an altermagnet with \(d\) wave symmetry consists of two elliptical sublattice textures with perpendicular long axes. For each sublattice component $η=A,B$, we define an effective skyrmion radius $R_η=\sqrt{a_ηb_η}$, where $a_η$ and $b_η$ are the distances from the skyrmion center to its boundary along $y$ and $x$, respectively. For the anisotropic exchange parameters studied, the equilibrium radius at zero field is smaller than in a reference with parallel sublattice textures and otherwise identical parameters. A magnetic field perpendicular to the film expands one sublattice skyrmion and contracts the other, generating a radius difference $\dR=R_A-R_B$ and a net magnetic moment. The exchange modulation used to represent uniaxial strain also produces a nonzero radius difference at zero field. Because the strong and weak exchange directions are interchanged between the two sublattices, a common directional change of the exchange couplings increases one radius and decreases the other. Unlike the magnetic coupling, this mechanism vanishes when the two sublattice exchange tensors become identical. The radius difference also supports an antisymmetric breathing mode. After a short field pulse, it oscillates in quadrature with the uniform helicity, the common rotation of the wall magnetization within the film plane, at \(49.5\,\mathrm{GHz}\) for the reference parameters.