Magneto-optics induced by the spin chirality in itinerant ferromagnet Nd$_2$Mo$_2$O$_7$

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that spin chirality in itinerant ferromagnets induces a magneto-optical effect, supported by theoretical models and experiments on molybdate compounds, highlighting the dominance of spin chirality over spin-orbit interactions in certain cases.

Contribution

It provides the first combined theoretical and experimental evidence that spin chirality causes magneto-optical effects in itinerant ferromagnets, distinguishing it from spin-orbit mechanisms.

Findings

Spin chirality produces a measurable magneto-optical effect.

Optical Hall conductivity is proportional to spin chirality.

In Nd$_2$Mo$_2$O$_7$, spin chirality dominates the magneto-optical response.

Abstract

It is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally that the spin chirality associated with a noncoplanar spin configuration produces a magneto-optical effect. Numerical study of the two-band Hubbard model on a triangle cluster shows that the optical Hall conductivity $\sigma_{xy}(\omega)$ is proportional to the spin chirality. The detailed comparative experiments on pyrochlore-type molybdates $R_2$Mo$_2$O$_7$ with $R=$Nd (Ising-like moments) and $R=$Gd (Heisenberg-like ones) clearly distinguishes the two mechanisms, i.e., spin chirality and spin-orbit interactions. It is concluded that for $R$=Nd, $\sigma_{xy}(\omega)$ is dominated by the spin chirality for the dc ($\omega=0$) and the $d \to d$ incoherent intraband optical transitions between Mo atoms.