Emergence of transient domain wall skyrmions after ultrafast demagnetization

It is known that ultrafast laser pulses can be used to deterministically switch magnetization and create skyrmions; however, the deterministic creation of a single Neel skyrmion after ultrafast demagnetization remains an open question. Here we show domain wall skyrmions also emerge in systems with broken inversion symmetry after exposure to an ultrafast laser pulse, carrying an integer topological charge. While domain wall skyrmions do not appear in the relaxed state due to quick thermal decay following an Arrhenius law, they play a key role in controlling the final skyrmion population through annihilations with skyrmions of opposite topological charge, with the resultant skyrmion states following a Poisson distribution. Using single-shot linearly polarized laser pulses, as well as a train of circularly polarized laser pulses, we show that when a high degree of disorder is created, the possibility of nucleating a single Neel skyrmion is accompanied by the possibility of nucleating a skyrmion with domain wall skyrmion pair, which results in a self-annihilation collapse.