Interaction of Individual Skyrmions in a Nanostructured Cubic Chiral Magnet.

We report direct evidence of the field-dependent character of the interaction between individual magnetic skyrmions as well as between skyrmions and edges in B20-type FeGe nanostripes observed by means of high-resolution Lorentz transmission electron microscopy. It is shown that above certain critical values of an external magnetic field the character of such long-range skyrmion interactions changes from attraction to repulsion. Experimentally measured equilibrium inter-skyrmion and skyrmion-edge distances as a function of the applied magnetic field shows quantitative agreement with the results of micromagnetic simulations. The important role of demagnetizing fields and the internal symmetry of three-dimensional magnetic skyrmions are discussed in detail.