Domain walls in helical magnets

TL;DR

This paper reveals that domain walls in helical magnets are fundamentally different from traditional types, featuring vortex lattices and unique electrical and magnetic properties, with implications for spintronics and multiferroics.

Contribution

It provides the first systematic study of domain walls in helical magnets, highlighting their vortex lattice structure and associated phenomena such as the anomalous Hall effect and electric field manipulation.

Findings

Domain walls in helical magnets form vortex lattices.

Vortices carry Berry phase flux in conical phases, causing anomalous Hall effect.

Vortices are charged in multiferroics, enabling electric control of magnetic domains.

Abstract

The structure of domain walls determines to a large extent the properties of magnetic materials, in particular their hardness and switching behavior, it represents an essential ingredient of spintronics. Common domain walls are of Bloch and Neel types in which the magnetization rotates around a fixed axis, giving rise to a one-dimensional magnetization profile. Domain walls in helical magnets, most relevant in multiferroics, were never studied systematically. Here we show that domain walls in helical magnets are fundamentally different from Bloch and Neel walls. They are generically characterized by a two-dimensional pattern formed by a regular lattice of vortex singularities. In conical phases vortices carry Berry phase flux giving rise to the anomalous Hall effect. In multiferroics vortices are charged, allowing to manipulate magnetic domain walls by electric fields. Our theory allows the interpretation of magnetic textures observed in helical magnetic structures.