Magnetic skyrmions are nanosized topologically protected spin textures with particlelike properties. They can form lattices perpendicular to the magnetic field, and the orientation of these skyrmion lattices with respect to the crystallographic lattice is governed by spin-orbit coupling. By performing small-angle neutron scattering measurements, we investigate the coupling between the crystallographic and skyrmion lattices in both Cu2OSeO3 and the archetype chiral magnet MnSi. The results reveal that the orientation of the skyrmion lattice is primarily determined by the magnetic field direction with respect to the crystallographic lattice. In addition, it is also influenced by the magnetic history of the sample, which can induce metastable lattices. Kinetic measurements show that these metastable skyrmion lattices may or may not relax to their equilibrium positions under macroscopic relaxation times. Furthermore, multidomain lattices may form when two or more equivalent crystallographic directions are favored by spin-orbit coupling and oriented perpendicular to the magnetic field.@en

We study the evolution of the low-temperature field-induced magnetic defects observed under an applied magnetic field in a series of frustrated amorphous ferromagnets (Fe1-xMnx)75P16B3Al3 (“a-Fe1-xMnx”). Combining small-angle neutron scattering and Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the morphology of these defects resemble that of quasi-bidimensional spin vortices. They are observed in the so-called “reentrant” spin-glass (RSG) phase, up to the critical concentration xC≈ 0.36 which separates the RSG and “true” spin glass (SG) within the low temperature part of the magnetic phase diagram of a-Fe1−xMnx. These textures systematically decrease in size with increasing magnetic field or decreasing the average exchange interaction, and they finally disappear in the SG sample (x= 0.41), being replaced by field-induced correlations over finite length scales. We argue that the study of these nanoscopic defects could be used to probe the critical line between the RSG and SG phases.@en