Quantum collapse of a small skyrmion in a thin magnetic film with Dzyalishinskii-Moriya (DMI) interaction has been studied. The energy of the skyrmion and the stability threshold determined by the DMI, the external magnetic field, and the underlying atomic lattice are investigated analytically and numerically. The Lagrangian describing the coupled dynamics of the skyrmion size and the chirality angle is derived. Equations of motion possess an instanton solution that corresponds to the skyrmion underbarrier contraction via quantum tunneling with subsequent collapse and decay of the topological charge. The tunneling rate is computed and the conditions needed to observe quantum collapse of a skyrmion in a magnetic film are discussed.

• Received 1 June 2018
• Revised 11 July 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.024423