Spin dynamics of the centrosymmetric skyrmion material GdRu2Si2

Highlights•Inelastic neutron scattering data of the magnetic skyrmion material GdRu2Si2 are reported•Evolution of the magnetic structure with temperature is studied•Key spectroscopy features are explained by density functional theory calculations•Results help to elucidate the magnetic interactions and validate theoretical predictionsSummaryMagnetic skyrmion crystals are traditionally associated with non-centrosymmetric crystal structures; however, it has been demonstrated that skyrmion crystals can be stabilized by competing interactions in centrosymmetric crystals. To understand and optimize the physical responses associated with topologically nontrivial skyrmion textures, it is important to quantify their magnetic interactions by comparing theoretical predictions with spectroscopy data. Here, we present neutron diffraction and spectroscopy data on the centrosymmetric skyrmion material GdRu2Si2 and show that the key spectroscopic features can be explained by magnetic interactions calculated using density functional theory. We further show that the recently proposed 2-q "topological spin stripe" structure yields better agreement with our data than a 1-q helical structure and identify how the magnetic structure evolves with temperature.Graphical abstract