Skyrmions是稳定拓扑质地，具有与粒子相似的性质，它是一个最初用来描述核粒子的数学概念，但过去十年却在从微观到宇宙的所有尺度上都得到了应用。
事实证明，Skyrmions对于描述磁体中新颖的自旋构形尤为有用，而且去年Skyrmions在磁性化合物MnSi 和 Fe1-xCoxSi中的存在也通过中子散射实验得到证实。
现在，Yu等人利用透射电子显微镜获得了后一种化合物的一个二维skyrmion晶格的真实空间图像，其形式为涡旋自旋结构的一个六边形排列。
生物谷启用新域名 www.bioon.net
该晶格被发现在一系列不同温度和磁场下都是非常稳定的。本文作者们猜测，所观测到的纳米尺度的自旋拓扑也许会导致有趣的、新的电磁效应的发现。(生物谷Bioon.net)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Nature doi:10.1038/nature09124
Real-space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal
X. Z. Yu, Y. Onose, N. Kanazawa, J. H. Park, J. H. Han, Y. Matsui, N. Nagaosa & Y. Tokura
Crystal order is not restricted to the periodic atomic array, but can also be found in electronic systems such as the Wigner crystal1 or in the form of orbital order2, stripe order3 and magnetic order. In the case of magnetic order, spins align parallel to each other in ferromagnets and antiparallel in antiferromagnets. In other, less conventional, cases, spins can sometimes form highly nontrivial structures called spin textures4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. Among them is the unusual, topologically stable skyrmion spin texture, in which the spins point in all the directions wrapping a sphere4, 5, 6, 7. The skyrmion configuration in a magnetic solid is anticipated to produce unconventional spin–electronic phenomena such as the topological Hall effect24, 25, 26. The crystallization of skyrmions as driven by thermal fluctuations has recently been confirmed in a narrow region of the temperature/magnetic field (T–B) phase diagram in neutron scattering studies of the three-dimensional helical magnets MnSi (ref. 17) and Fe1?xCoxSi (ref. 22). Here we report real-space imaging of a two-dimensional skyrmion lattice in a thin film of Fe0.5Co0.5Si using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy. With a magnetic field of 50–70?mT applied normal to the film, we observe skyrmions in the form of a hexagonal arrangement of swirling spin textures, with a lattice spacing of 90?nm. The related T–B phase diagram is found to be in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. In this two-dimensional case, the skyrmion crystal seems very stable and appears over a wide range of the phase diagram, including near zero temperature. Such a controlled nanometre-scale spin topology in a thin film may be useful in observing unconventional magneto-transport effects.
