A Model for the Occurrence of Lock-ins in Holmium in c-axis Magnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper presents a new model explaining the lock-in phenomena of the spiral wave vector in holmium under c-axis magnetic fields, successfully predicting observed lock-in sequences using a combined spin-slip and domain structure approach.

Contribution

It introduces the first successful model for predicting lock-ins in holmium's helimagnetic phase under c-axis magnetic fields, combining spin-slip and domain structure assumptions.

Findings

Model accurately predicts lock-in sequences

Combines spin-slip and domain structure approaches

First successful prediction of lock-ins in this context

Abstract

We introduce a novel interpretation of the sequence of commensurate lock-ins of the spiral wave vector, tau, observed in the helimagnetic phase of holmium in the presence of c-axis magnetic fields. This is the first successful model for the prediction of these lock-ins. We show that a model which combines a spin-slip model with an assumption concerning the spin structure along the c-axis in finite size ``domains'', yields excellent predictions when the energetics of this system with an applied c-axis magnetic field are considered.