Experimental verification of the rotational type of chiral spin spiral structures by spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy

Abstract

We report on experimental verification of the rotational type of chiral spin spirals in Mn thin films on a W(110) substrate using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SP-STM) with a double-axis superconducting vector magnet. From SP-STM images using Fe-coated W tips magnetized to the out-of-plane and [001] directions, we found that both Mn mono- and double-layers exhibit cycloidal rotation whose spins rotate in the planes normal to the propagating directions. Our results agree with the theoretical prediction based on the symmetry of the system, supporting that the magnetic structures are driven by the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction.

Direct Observation of Fe‐Ge Ordering in Fe5−xGeTe2 Crystals and Resultant Helimagnetism

“…[ 30,33 ] The phase boundary between the uniform phase and the chiral soliton lattice phase has also been studied in the context of two‐dimensional chiral magnets with the DMI in Refs. [ 34–36 ] Analytical study regarding the C‐IC transition and the magnetization profile on the chiral soliton lattice phase is provided in SI section 5. This C‐IC leads to the magnetic anomaly just below T c , indicating formation of magnetic soliton lattice.…”

Cycloidal Domains in the Magnetization Reversal Process of Ni80Fe20/Nd16Co84/Gd12CoQuirós1, Hierro-Rodríguez2, Sorrentino3 et al. 2018Phys. Rev. Applied5060View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…Then, the most stable structures are formed by the combination of helical and cycloidal domains [Figs. 1(a) and 1(b)], as recently proposed and observed in chiral magnets [4,5,[19][20][21][22]. In a simple helical domain structure, periodic along y, the magnetization rotates 2π rad in the M x -M z plane as sketched in Fig.…”

Cavity-Quantum-Electrodynamical Toolbox for Quantum Magnetism

“…The Heisenberg interaction, originating from the isotropic quantum exchange interaction between electrons, favors ferromagnetic (FM) or antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering [4]. The more exotic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction [5][6][7], stemming from a relativistic antisymmetric exchange interaction, favors chiral states such as spin spiral (SS) and skyrmion [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], with potential applications in spintronics [16].…”

“…Chiral SS phase.-Let us now consider a straightforward, though crucial, modification of the experiment of Ref. [45], where the driving lasers are assumed to be counterpropagating running waves along the y direction, spin interactions result in an emergent transverse, conical SS state [14,15]. The spirals solely appear in the x-y plane as the DM interaction has only the z component and the cross-spin terms only couple the x and y components of the spins.…”