A Surface-confined Spiral State With the Double Period in the Cubic Chiral Helimagnet Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$

Abstract

The chiral magnetoelectric insulator Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$ hosts a rich and anisotropic magnetic phase diagram that includes helical, conical, field-polarised, tilted conical, and skyrmion lattice phases. Using resonant elastic x-ray scattering (REXS), we uncover a new spiral state confined to the surface of Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$. This surface-confined spiral state (SSS) displays a real-space pitch of $\sim$120 nm, which remarkably is twice the length of the incommensurate structures observed to-date in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$. The SSS phase emerges at temperatures below 30~K when the magnetic field is applied between $3^{\circ }$ to $18^{\circ }$ away from the $⟨\text{110}⟩$ crystallographic axes. Its surface localisation is demonstrated through a combination of REXS in reflection and transmission geometries, with complementary small-angle neutron scattering measurements suggesting its absence from the bulk. We attribute the stabilisation of the SSS to competing anisotropic interactions at the crystal surface. The discovery of a robust, surface-confined spiral paves the way for engineering energy-efficient, nanoscale spin-texture platforms for next-generation devices.

9 pages, 4 figures