  Novel types of barrel-shaped chiral skyrmions can exist as isolated
topological defects or as bound states in magnetic nanolayers with intrinsic
and surface/interface induced chirality. The equilibrium parameters of chiral
modulations calculated as functions of applied fields, layer thicknesses, and
values of surface and volume uniaxial anisotropies allow to find optimal
parameters for skyrmionic states in magnetic nanolayers. Our findings also show
that in cholesteric cells with homeotropic anchoring smooth skyrmionic textures
can be induced as an intriguing alternative to common disclination penetrated
patterns.
