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A surface-confined spiral state with the double period in the cubic chiral helimagnet Cu2OSeO3
Priya R Baral1,2,3, Oleg I Utesov4, Samuel H Moody2
1Department of Applied Physics and Quantum-Phase Electronics Center (QPEC), The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan.
Abstract:
The chiral magnetoelectric insulator Cu2OSeO3 hosts a rich and anisotropic magnetic phase diagram that includes helical, conical, field-polarised, tilted conical, and skyrmion lattice phases. Using resonant elastic x-ray scattering (REXS), we uncover a new spiral state confined to the surface of Cu2OSeO3. This surface-confined spiral state (SSS) displays a real-space pitch of ~ 120 nm, which remarkably is twice the length of the incommensurate structures observed to-date in Cu2OSeO3. The SSS phase emerges at temperatures below 30 K when the magnetic field is applied between 3∘ to 18∘ away from the 〈110〉 crystallographic axes. Its surface localisation is demonstrated through a combination of REXS in reflection and transmission geometries, with complementary small-angle neutron scattering measurements suggesting its absence from the bulk. We attribute the stabilisation of the SSS to competing anisotropic interactions at the crystal surface. The discovery of a robust, surface-confined spiral paves the way for engineering energy-efficient, nanoscale spin-texture platforms for next-generation devices.
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