Symmetry-Tunable Skyrmions and Merons in Magnetic Nanodisks via Spatially Engineered Anisotropy

Abstract

We demonstrate that spatially engineered magnetic anisotropy can stabilize skyrmion and meron spin textures in magnetic nanodisks even in the absence of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI). Using a constrained analytical model and micromagnetic simulations, we show that competing perpendicular and in-plane anisotropies can generate noncollinear topological textures in nonchiral magnetic systems. We further show that DMI and dipolar interactions lift the helicity degeneracy and select preferred chiral configurations; micromagnetic simulations were used to identify physically stable states. These results establish anisotropy-patterned nanodisks as a platform for studying DMI-free topological spin textures and their controllable magnetic response. We also show that arrays of anisotropy-engineered skyrmions can control spin-wave transmission by manipulating their vorticity arrangement, pointing to reconfigurable magnonic elements based on nonchiral topological textures.