Reentrant multiple-q magnetic order and a “spin meta-cholesteric” phase in Sr3Fe2O7
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Topologically nontrivial magnetic structures such as skyrmion lattices are well known in materials lacking lattice inversion symmetry, where antisymmetric exchange interactions are allowed. Only recently, topological multi-q magnetic textures that spontaneously break the chiral symmetry, for example, three-dimensional hedgehog lattices, were discovered in centrosymmetric compounds, where they are instead driven by frustrated interactions. Here we show that the bilayer perovskite Sr₃Fe₂O₇, previously believed to adopt a simple single-q spin-helical order, hosts two distinct types of multi-q spin textures. Its ground state represents a novel multi-q spin texture with unequally intense spin modulations at the two ordering vectors. This is followed in temperature by a new “spin meta-cholesteric” phase, in which the chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken along one of the crystal directions, but the weaker orthogonal modulation melts, giving rise to intense short-range dynamical fluctuations. Shortly before the transition to the paramagnetic state, vortex-crystal order spanned by two equivalent q vectors emerges. This renders Sr₃Fe₂O₇ an ideal material to study transitions among multiple-q spin textures in a centrosymmetric host.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 84 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | npj quantum materials |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 26 Oct 2024 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |