Revival of antibiskyrmionic magnetic phases in bilayer NiI2

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures with potential applications in memory and logic devices. Skyrmions have been commonly observed in systems with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction due to broken inversion symmetry. Yet, recent studies suggest that skyrmions can also be stabilized in systems with inversion symmetry, such as Ni-based dihalides due to magnetic frustration. In this article, we employ atomistic simulations to investigate chiral magnetic phases in bilayers of NiI₂ and NiBr₂. We show that the antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling introduces an additional magnetic frustration and gives rise to a variety of novel spin textures with different topological charges. Specifically, for NiI₂, we observe that the skyrmions with the in-plane component of spins wrapping around twice (biskyrmions) have an enhanced stability compared to the monolayer case. We also study the polarization induced by the noncolinear magnetic order in NiI₂ bilayers and show that the polarization of the topologically nontrivial phases is negligible compared to the spiral phases. Thus, we conclude that polarization measurements can be an indirect route for detecting skyrmions in upcoming experiments.