Light-induced anisotropic skyrmion and stripe phases in a Rashba ferromagnet

An external off-resonant pumping is proposed as a tool to control the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in ferromagnetic layers with strong spin-orbit coupling. Combining theoretical analysis with numerical simulations for an $s$-$d$-like model we demonstrate that linearly polarized off-resonant light may help stabilizing novel noncollinear magnetic phases by inducing a strong anisotropy of the DMI. We also investigate how with the application of electromagnetic pumping one can control the stability, shape and size of individual skyrmions to make them suitable for potential applications.