Helical Spin Density Wave Due to Antisymmetric Exchange Interaction

Abstract

For the spin systems with both the symmetric exchange interaction (SEI) and the antisymmetric exchange interaction (AEI) (the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction), the relative stability between the ferromagnetic state (FMS) and the helical spin density wave (HSDW) is discussed phenomenologically. The arguments are made to the spin systems of which the spin structures are described by the spin density S ( r ) varying slowly with the position r and the SEI is favorable to the FMS. For the 21 types of crystal symmetry with the isogonal point groups having no inversion symmetry, the characteristics of the instability of the FMS are investigated. By use of the Landau free energy obtained for crystals with the isogonal point groups T and O , the magnetization process, the magnetic phase diagram, and the intensity of the neutron diffuse scattering are calculated. A comparison between the calculated results and the experiments on MnSi is also given.