Investigating the magnetic ground state of the skyrmion host material Cu2OSeO3 using long-wavelength neutron diffraction

Franke, K.J.A.; Dean, P.R.; Hatnean, M. Ciomaga; Birch, M.T.; Khalyavin, D.D.; Manuel, P.; Lancaster, T.; Balakrishnan, G.; Hatton, P.D.

Abstract

We present long-wavelength neutron diffraction data measured on both single crystal and polycrystalline samples of the skyrmion host material Cu2OSeO3. We observe magnetic satellites around the (01⎯⎯1) diffraction peak not accessible to other techniques, and distinguish helical from conical spin textures in reciprocal space. Our measurements show that not only the field-polarised phase but also the helical ground state are made up of ferrimagnetic clusters instead of individual spins. These clusters are distorted Cu tetrahedra, where the spin on one Cu ion is anti-aligned with the spin on the three other Cu ions.

Citation

Franke, K., Dean, P., Hatnean, M. C., Birch, M., Khalyavin, D., Manuel, P., …Hatton, P. (2019). Investigating the magnetic ground state of the skyrmion host material Cu2OSeO3 using long-wavelength neutron diffraction. AIP Advances, 9(12), Article 125228. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129400

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 18, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 23, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 23, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 6, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 8, 2020
• Journal: AIP Advances
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 12
• Article Number: 125228
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129400
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1280077