Photocontrol of spin scalar chirality in centrosymmetric itinerant magnets

Abstract

Noncoplanar magnetic structures, such as magnetic skyrmions, are characterized by spin chirality and usually favored by antisymmetric exchange interactions in noncentrosymmetric magnets. Here, we show that a linearly polarized electric-field pulse stabilizes a nonequilibrium spin scalar chiral state in a centrosymmetric itinerant ferromagnet. The scalar chirality has a nonmonotonic dependence on the electric-field strength, and its sign can be controlled by circular polarization. Furthermore, magnetic skyrmions are excited after the pulse decays. A photoinduced nonthermal electron distribution plays an important role for instability towards the spin scalar chiral state as well as the $120^{\circ }$ Néel state, depending on the next-nearest-neighbor transfer integral. These results provide an alternative route to controlling spin chirality by photoirradiation.

9 pages, 8 figures (including supplemental material)

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Skyrmion Generation through the Chirality Interplay of Light and Magnetism
• High harmonic generation from electrons moving in topological spin textures
• Nonlinear Hall effect driven by spin-charge-coupled motive force
• Real-time control of non-Abelian anyons in Kitaev spin liquid under energy dissipation