Topological spin/structure couplings in layered chiral magnet Cr <sub>1/3</sub> TaS <sub>2</sub> : The discovery of spiral magnetic superstructure
Kai Du, Fei‐Ting Huang, Jae‐Wook Kim, Seong Joon Lim, Kasun Gamage, J. Yang, Maxim Mostovoy, Joseph A. Garlow, Myung‐Geun Han, Yimei Zhu, Sang‐Wook Cheong
Abstract
, exhibiting numerous chiral domains forming topological defects and a nanometer-scale helimagnetic order interlocked with the structural chirality. Tuning the chiral domain density, we discovered a macroscopic topological magnetic texture inside each chiral domain that has an appearance of a spiral magnetic superstructure composed of quasiperiodic Néel domain walls. The spirality of this object can have either sign and is decoupled from the structural chirality. In weak, in-plane magnetic fields, it transforms into a nonspiral array of concentric ring domains. Numerical simulations suggest that this magnetic superstructure is stabilized by strains in the heterochiral state favoring noncollinear spins. Our results unveil topological structure/spin couplings in a wide range of different length scales and highly tunable spin textures in heterochiral magnets.