MnSb2O6: A polar magnet with a chiral crystal structure

Abstract

Structural and magnetic chiralities are found to coexist in a small group of materials in which they produce intriguing phenomenologies such as the recently discovered skyrmion phases. Here, we describe a previously unknown manifestation of this interplay in MnSb2O6, a trigonal oxide with a chiral crystal structure. Unlike all other known cases, the MnSb2O6 magnetic structure is based on co-rotating cycloids rather than helices. The coupling to the structural chirality is provided by a magnetic axial vector, related to the so-called vector chirality. We show that this unique arrangement is the magnetic ground state of the symmetric-exchange Hamiltonian, based on ab-initio theoretical calculations of the Heisenberg exchange interactions, and is stabilised by out-of-plane anisotropy. MnSb2O6 is predicted to be multiferroic with a unique ferroelectric switching mechanism.

Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (3)

• Long wavelength helimagnetic order and skyrmion lattice phase in Cu2OSeO3
• Giant improper ferroelectricity in the ferroaxial magnet CaMn7O12
• Single domain magnetic helicity and triangular chirality in structurally enantiopure Ba3NbFe3Si2O14

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• Neutron diffraction in MnSb2O6: Magnetic and structural domains in a helicoidal polar magnet with coupled chiralities
• Successive Phase Transitions in the Quasi-Kagome Lattice System URhSn Studied by Resonant X-ray Scattering
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