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

TL;DR

This paper explores how exchange anisotropy drives the formation of spin-stripes in frustrated zigzag spin-1/2 chains, combining experimental measurements and a phenomenological model to explain the magnetic order modulation.

Contribution

It introduces a simple phenomenological model highlighting exchange anisotropy as the key mechanism for spin-stripe formation in frustrated spin chains.

Findings

Magnetic structures of all three phases characterized.

Exchange anisotropy identified as crucial for spin-stripe formation.

Experimental data supports the phenomenological model.

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.