Exchange anisotropy as mechanism for spin-stripe formation in frustrated spin chains

Abstract

We investigate the spin-stripe mechanism responsible for the peculiar nanometer modulation of the incommensurate magnetic order that emerges between the vector-chiral and the spin-density-wave phase in the frustrated zigzag spin-1/2 chain compound $\beta$-TeVO${}_4$. A combination of magnetic-torque, neutron-diffraction and spherical-neutron-polarimetry measurements is employed to determine the complex magnetic structures of all three ordered phases. Based on these results, we develop a simple phenomenological model, which exposes the exchange anisotropy as the key ingredient for the spin-stripe formation in frustrated spin systems.

4 pages + supplementary material, published version (PRB Rapid Communications)

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Elementary excitation in the spin-stripe phase in quantum chains
• Competing magnetic phases in the frustrated spin-1/2 chain compound $\beta$-TeVO${}_4$ probed by NMR
• Magnetic-field-induced reorientation in the SDW and the spin-stripe phases of the frustrated spin-1/2 chain compound $\beta$-TeVO${}_4$