Magnetic soliton confinement and discretization effects arising from macroscopic coherence in a chiral spin soliton lattice

Togawa, Y. et al. (2015) Magnetic soliton confinement and discretization effects arising from macroscopic coherence in a chiral spin soliton lattice. Physical Review B, 92, 220412(R). (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.92.220412)

Abstract

We present how macroscopically coherent ordering within a chiral state can be manifested in the physical properties within the context of an archetypical system—the chiral spin soliton lattice in a monoaxial chiral magnet CrNb3S6. Using magnetotransport measurements and state-of-the-art Lorentz electron microscopy, we demonstrate spin soliton confinement in 1−μm-wide grains with different crystalline chirality and discretized magnetoresistance in 10−μm-wide crystals. Discretization effects are found to be prominent when the system size is reduced to the order of 10μm along the chiral axis. A consequence that we identify is a robust coherence of the chiral soliton lattice against deformation. The spin configuration at the grain boundaries, which leads to soliton confinement, is experimentally clarified.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: McGrouther, Dr Damien and Togawa, Dr Yoshihiko and McVitie, Professor Stephen and Stamps, Professor Robert
• Authors: Togawa, Y., Koyama, T., Nishimori, Y., Matsumoto, Y., McVitie, S., McGrouther, D., Stamps, R.L., Kousaka, Y., Akimitsu, J., Nishihara, S., Inoue, K., Bostrem, I. G., Sinitsyn, V. E., Ovchinnikov, A. S., and Kishine, J.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Physical Review B
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 1098-0121
• ISSN (Online): 1550-235X
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2015 American Physical Society
• First Published: First published in Physical Review B 92:220412(R)
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License