Lock-in of a Chiral Soliton Lattice by Itinerant Electrons

TL;DR

This paper theoretically explores how itinerant electrons influence the magnetic structure of chiral soliton lattices, revealing a lock-in phenomenon related to Fermi wave number and spin-charge coupling, with implications for magnetic materials.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal itinerant electron model to explain the lock-in of chiral soliton lattice periods and their spontaneous formation without magnetic fields.

Findings

The lattice period can be locked at specific values dictated by the Fermi wave number.

Spin-charge coupling causes the lock-in behavior observed in experiments.

Chiral soliton lattices can form spontaneously without external magnetic fields.

Abstract

Chiral magnets often show intriguing magnetic and transport properties associated with their peculiar spin textures. A typical example is a chiral soliton lattice, which is found in monoaxial chiral magnets, such as CrNb$_3$S$_6$ and Yb(Ni$_{1-x}$Cu$_x$)$_3$Al$_9$ in an external magnetic field perpendicular to the chiral axis. Here, we theoretically investigate the electronic and magnetic properties in the chiral soliton lattice by a minimal itinerant electron model. Using variational calculations, we find that the period of the chiral soliton lattice can be locked at particular values dictated by the Fermi wave number, in stark contrast to spin-only models. We discuss this behavior caused by the spin-charge coupling as a possible mechanism for the lock-in discovered in Yb(Ni$_{1-x}$Cu$_x$)$_3$Al$_9$. We also show that the same mechanism leads to the spontaneous formation of the chiral soliton lattice even in the absence of the magnetic field.