Observation of fractional spin textures and bulk-boundary correspondence

Recently a zoology of non-collinear chiral spin textures has been discovered, most of which, such as skyrmions and antiskyrmions, have integer topological charges that provides them with enhanced stability. Here we report the experimental real-space observation of the formation and stability of fractional antiskyrmions and fractional elliptical skyrmions in a Heusler material. These fractional objects appear, over a wide range of temperature and magnetic field, at the edges of a sample, whose interior is occupied by an array of nano-objects with integer topological charges, in agreement with our simulations. We explore the evolution of these objects in the presence of magnetic fields and show their interconversion to objects with integer topological charges. This means the topological charge can be varied continuously. These fractional spin textures are not just another type of skyrmion, but are essentially a new state of matter that emerges and lives only at the boundary of a magnetic system. Moreover, they form the basis for topological quantum effects arising from the magnonic excitations around a skyrmion lattice. The coexistence of both integer and fractionally charged spin textures in the same material makes the Heusler family of compounds unique for the manipulation of the real-space topology of spin textures and thus an exciting platform especially for the future exploration of the magnonic bulk-boundary correspondence.