The continuum of metastable conical states of monoaxial chiral helimagnets

Abstract

At low temperature and zero applied magnetic field, besides the equilibrium helical state, monoaxial chiral helimagnets have a continuum of helical states differing by the wave number of the modulation. The wave number of these states in units of the equilibrium state wave number is denoted here by p, and accordingly the corresponding states are called the p-states. In this work we study in detail the metastability of the p-states. The application of an external magnetic field in the direction of the chiral axis has a double effect: on one hand, it introduces a conical deformation of the p-states, and on the other hand it destabilizes some of them, shrinking the range of p in which the p-states are metastable. If a polarized current is applied along the chiral axis, the p-states reach a steady moving state with a constant velocity proportional to the current intensity. Besides this dynamical effect, the polarized current also induces a conical deformation and reduces the range of stability of the p-states. The stability diagram in the plane applied field - applied current intensity has interesting features that, among other things, permit the manipulation of p-states by a combination of applied fields and currents. These features can be exploited to devise processes to switch between p-states. In particular there are p-states with negative p, opening the possibility to helicity switching. The theoretical feasibility of such processes, crucial from the point of view of applications, is shown by micromagnetic simulations. Analogous $p$-states exists in cubic chiral helimagnets and therefore similar effects are expected in those systems.

arXiv comment13 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (21)

• Skyrmion Lattice in a Chiral Magnet
• The design and verification of Mumax3
• Roles of non-equilibrium conduction electrons on magnetization dynamics of ferromagnets
• Micromagnetic understanding of current-driven domain wall motion in patterned nanowires
• The 2020 Skyrmionics Roadmap
• Magnetic phase transitions in single crystals of the chiral helimagnet Cr1/3NbS2
• Formation of a magnetic soliton lattice in copper metaborate
• Field-induced Commensurate-Incommensurate phase transition in a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya spiral antiferromagnet
• Chiral Soliton Lattice Formation in Monoaxial Helimagnet Yb(Ni${}_{1-x}$Cu${}_x$)${}_3$Al${}_9$
• Observation of a mesoscopic magnetic modulation in chiral Mn1/3NbS2
• Understanding the H-T phase diagram of the mono-axial helimagnet
• Incommensurate--commensurate transitions in the mono-axial chiral helimagnet driven by the magnetic field
• Spin Structure of the Anisotropic Helimagnet Cr${}_{1/3}$NbS${}_2$ in a Magnetic Field
• Annihilation and Control of Chiral Domain Walls with Magnetic Fields
• Combing the helical phase of chiral magnets with electric currents
• Nucleation, instability, and discontinuous phase transitions in monoaxial helimagnets with oblique fields
• Magnetic field dependence of the nonlinear magnetic response and tricritical point in the monoaxial chiral helimagnet Cr${}_{1/3}$NbS${}_2$
• Stability of skyrmion textures and the role of thermal fluctuations in cubic helimagnets: a new intermediate phase at low temperature
• Thermal fluctuations in the conical state of monoaxial helimagnets
• Stability of the skyrmion lattice near the critical temperature in cubic helimagnets
• Response of the chiral soliton lattice to spin polarized currents

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Helitronics for classical and unconventional computing