Chiral Domains Research Articles

Unusual magnetoelectric memory and polarization reversal in the kagome staircase compound Ni3V2O8

We study the electric polarization of the kagome staircase $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{i}}_{3}{\mathrm{V}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{8}$ in magnetic fields up to 30 T and report a magnetoelectric memory effect controlled by bias electric fields. The explored ferroelectric phase in $19--24\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{T}$ is electrically controlled, whereas the ferroelectric phase in $2--11\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{T}$ exhibits unusual memory effects. We determine a characteristic critical magnetic field ${\mathbit{H}}_{3}=11\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{T}$, below which strong memory exists and the polarization is frozen even in opposite bias fields. But when magnetic fields exceed ${\mathbit{H}}_{3}$, the frozen polarization is released and polarization reversal appears by tuning bias electric fields. We ascribe these phenomena to the pinning-depinning mechanism: nucleation and the accompanying pinning of chiral domain walls cooperatively induce the frozen behavior; the polarization reversal results from the depinning through the ferroelectrtic-to-paraelectric phase transition in high magnetic fields. Our experimental results reveal that the first-order phase transition plays an important role in these unusual memory effects.

Experimental Evidence of Chiral Ferrimagnetism in Amorphous GdCo Films.

Inversion symmetry breaking has become a vital research area in modern magnetism with phenomena including the Rashba effect, spin Hall effect, and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI)-a vector spin exchange. The latter one may stabilize chiral spin textures with topologically nontrivial properties, such as Skyrmions. So far, chiral spin textures have mainly been studied in helimagnets and thin ferromagnets with heavy-element capping. Here, the concept of chirality driven by interfacial DMI is generalized to complex multicomponent systems and demonstrated on the example of chiral ferrimagnetism in amorphous GdCo films. Utilizing Lorentz microscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy, and tailoring thickness, capping, and rare-earth composition, reveal that 2 nm thick GdCo films preserve ferrimagnetism and stabilize chiral domain walls. The type of chiral domain walls depends on the rare-earth composition/saturation magnetization, enabling a possible temperature control of the intrinsic properties of ferrimagnetic domain walls.

Chiral Domain Structure in Superfluid ^{3}He-A Studied by Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

The existence of a spatially varying texture in superfluid ^{3}He is a direct manifestation of the complex macroscopic wave function. The real space shape of the texture, namely, a macroscopic wave function, has been studied extensively with the help of theoretical modeling but has never been directly observed experimentally with spatial resolution. We have succeeded in visualizing the texture by a specialized magnetic resonance imaging. With this new technology, we have discovered that the macroscopic chiral domains, of which sizes are as large as 1mm, and corresponding chiral domain walls exist rather stably in ^{3}He-A film at temperatures far below the transition temperature.

Effect of Anisotropy of Cellulose Nanocrystal Suspensions on Stratification, Domain Structure Formation, and Structural Colors.

Outstanding optical and mechanical properties can be obtained from hierarchical assemblies of nanoparticles. Herein, the formation of helically ordered, chiral nematic films obtained from aqueous suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were studied as a function of the initial suspension state. Specifically, nanoparticle organization and the structural colors displayed by the resultant dry films were investigated as a function of the anisotropic volume fraction (AVF), which depended on the initial CNC concentration and equilibration time. The development of structural color and the extent of macroscopic stratification were studied by optical and scanning electron microscopy as well as UV–vis spectroscopy. Overall, suspensions above the critical threshold required for formation of liquid crystals resulted in CNC films assembled with longer ranged order, more homogeneous pitches along the cross sections, and narrower specific absorption bands. This effect was more pronounced for the suspensions that were closer to equilibrium prior to drying. Thus, we show that high AVF and more extensive phase separation in CNC suspensions resulted in large, long-range ordered chiral nematic domains in dried films. Additionally, the average CNC aspect ratio and size distribution in the two separated phases were measured and correlated to the formation of structured domains in the dried assemblies.

A Nanohelicoidal Nematic Liquid Crystal Formed by a Non-Linear Duplexed Hexamer.

The twist‐bend modulated nematic liquid‐crystal phase exhibits formation of a nanometre‐scale helical pitch in a fluid and spontaneous breaking of mirror symmetry, leading to a quasi‐fluid state composed of chiral domains despite being composed of achiral materials. This phase was only observed for materials with two or more mesogenic units, the manner of attachment between which is always linear. Non‐linear oligomers with a H‐shaped hexamesogen are now found to exhibit both nematic and twist‐bend modulated nematic phases. This shatters the assumption that a linear sequence of mesogenic units is a prerequisite for this phase, and points to this state of matter being exhibited by a wider range of self‐assembling structures than was previously envisaged. These results support the double helix model of the TB phase as opposed to the simple heliconical model. This new class of materials could act as low‐molecular‐weight surrogates for cross‐linked liquid‐crystalline elastomers.

A Nanohelicoidal Nematic Liquid Crystal Formed by a Non‐Linear Duplexed Hexamer

AbstractThe twist‐bend modulated nematic liquid‐crystal phase exhibits formation of a nanometre‐scale helical pitch in a fluid and spontaneous breaking of mirror symmetry, leading to a quasi‐fluid state composed of chiral domains despite being composed of achiral materials. This phase was only observed for materials with two or more mesogenic units, the manner of attachment between which is always linear. Non‐linear oligomers with a H‐shaped hexamesogen are now found to exhibit both nematic and twist‐bend modulated nematic phases. This shatters the assumption that a linear sequence of mesogenic units is a prerequisite for this phase, and points to this state of matter being exhibited by a wider range of self‐assembling structures than was previously envisaged. These results support the double helix model of the TB phase as opposed to the simple heliconical model. This new class of materials could act as low‐molecular‐weight surrogates for cross‐linked liquid‐crystalline elastomers.

Nanoscale control of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, coercive force and domain structure in ultrathin Ru/Co/W/Ru films

Development of fast and energy-efficient spintronic devices requires novel nanoscaled materials with controllable magnetic properties. Here we show that the introduction of an ultrathin W interlayer between Co and Ru in Ru/Co/Ru films enables to preserve perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and dramatically reduce the coercive force and size of magnetic domains. We find that the Ru/Co/W/Ru films with up to 0.35 nm of the nominal thickness of W have robust PMA. The observed formation of a dendritic domain structure with small domains having homochiral Néel domain walls is an indicator of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction appearing in trilayers with asymmetrical interfaces. The inversion-symmetry-broken Ru/Co/W/Ru films are a potential host for nucleation and manipulation of non-trivial spin textures like chiral domain walls and skyrmions.

Fulde-Ferrell state in a ferromagnetic chiral superconductor with magnetic domain walls

Motivated by the recent theoretical and experimental progress in the heavy fermion system UCoGe, we study ferromagnetic chiral superconductors in the presence of magnetic domains. Within mean field approximations, it is shown that chiral superconducting domains are naturally induced by the ferromagnetic domains. The domain wall current flows in the opposite direction to the naively expected one as in $^3$He-A phase due to contributions from "unpaired electrons". Consequently, the domain wall current flows in the same direction with that of surface currents when the magnetic domain wall lies parallel to the sample surface, and therefore they contribute to the net current along the whole sample. We find that, due to the non-cancellation between the domain wall current and surface current, a Fulde-Ferrell-like superconducting state can be stabilized in an anisotropic sample for all the temperatures below the superconducting transition temperature.

Electric Control of Superconducting Domains

Researchers have proposed the nucleation and annihilation of chiral domain walls in a topological p-wave superconductor controlled by an electric current.

Magnetization Reversal Modes in Short Nanotubes with Chiral Vortex Domain Walls.

Micromagnetic simulations of magnetization reversal were performed for magnetic nanotubes of a finite length, L, equal to 1 and 2 μm, 50 and 100 nm radii, R, and uniaxial anisotropy with “easy axis” parallel to the tube length. I.e., we considered relatively short nanotubes with the aspect ratio L/R in the range 10–40. The non-uniform curling magnetization states on both ends of the nanotubes can be treated as vortex domain walls (DW). The domain wall length, Lc, depends on the tube geometric parameters and the anisotropy constant Ku, and determines the magnetization reversal mode, as well as the switching field value. For nanotubes with relative small values of Lc (Lc/L < 0.2) the magnetization reversal process is characterized by flipping of the magnetization in the middle uniform state. Whereas, for relative large values of Lc, in the reverse magnetic field, coupling of two vortex domain walls with opposite magnetization rotation directions results in the formation of a specific narrow Néel type DW in the middle of the nanotube. The nanotube magnetization suddenly aligns to the applied field at the switching field, collapsing the central DW.

Controlling chiral domain walls in antiferromagnets using spin-wave helicity

In antiferromagnets, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction lifts the degeneracy of left- and right-circularly polarized spin waves. This relativistic coupling increases the efficiency of spin-wave-induced domain-wall motion and leads to higher drift velocities. We demonstrate that, in biaxial antiferromagnets, the spin-wave helicity controls both the direction and the magnitude of the magnonic force on chiral domain walls. In this case it is shown that the domain-wall velocity is an order of magnitude faster in the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. In uniaxial antiferromagnets, by contrast, the magnonic force is always propulsive, but its strength is still helicity dependent.

Chirality switching of the self-assembled CuPc domains induced by electric field.

Chiral switching of the self-assembled domains of CuPc molecules on the Cd(0001) surface has been investigated by means of a low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). With the coverage increasing, the CuPc molecules show the structural evolutions from an initial gas-like state to a network phase, a square phase, and finally to a compact phase at full monolayer. In the network and square phases, the achiral CuPc molecules reveal both the point chirality and chiral domains. In particular, the chirality of network domain can be switched from one enantiomer to another driven by the electric filed from a STM tip, which can also lead to the lattice rotation of network phase. These results demonstrate that (i) there is strong interaction between the CuPc molecules and STM tip; (ii) the adsorbed CuPc molecules carry considerable net charge or polarizability due to the charge transfer; (iii) the network phase has a low barrier for the interconversion between right- and left-handed domains. Our findings are significant for the understanding and control of the domain's chirality in the self-assembled structures.

Chirality-induced antisymmetry in magnetic domain wall speed

In chiral magnetic materials, numerous intriguing phenomena such as built-in chiral magnetic domain walls (DWs) and skyrmions are generated by the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI). The DMI also results in asymmetric DW speeds under an in-plane magnetic field, which provides a useful scheme to measure the strength of the DMI. However, recent findings of additional asymmetries such as chiral damping have inhibited the unambiguous determination of the DMI strength, and the underlying mechanism of overall asymmetries comes under debate. Here, we experimentally investigate the nature of the additional asymmetry by extracting the DMI-induced symmetric contribution from the DW speed. Our results reveal that the additional asymmetry has a truly antisymmetric nature with the typical behavior governed by the DW chirality. In addition, the antisymmetric contribution alters the DW speed by a factor of 100, dominating the overall variation in DW speed. Thus, experimental inaccuracies can be largely removed by calibration with such antisymmetric contributions, enabling the standard DMI measurement scheme.

Topological Hall effect in ferromagnetic/non-ferromagnetic metals heterojunctions

In a magnetic system, the spin orbit coupling can combine with the exchange interaction to generate an anisotropic exchange interaction that favors a chiral arrangement of the magnetization. This is known as the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). Contrary to the Heisenberg exchange interaction, which leads to collinear alignment of lattice spins, the form of DMI is therefore very often to cant the spins by a small angle. If DMI is strong enough to compete with the Heisenberg exchange interaction and the magnetic anisotropy, it can stabilize chiral domain wall structure such as skyrmion. When a conduction electron passes through a chiral domain wall, the spin of the conduction electron will experience a fictitious magnetic field (Berry curvature) in real space, which deflects the conduction electrons perpendicular to the current direction. Therefore, it will cause an additional contribution to the observed Hall signal that is termed topological Hall effect (THE). The THE has attracted much attention since it is a promising tool for probing magnetic skyrmions. Recent extensive experiments have focused on the the THE in the ferromagnetic/non-ferromagnetic metal heterojunctions due to the inherent tunability of magnetic interactions in two dimensions. We firstly review the THE in ferromagnetic multilayers, in which the domain wall energy with interfacial DMI can be written as =4AK-D, where Dis the effective DMI energy constant, A the exchange constant, K the anisotropy constant. For the most favorable chirality, it lowers the energy. The limit of this situation is when goes to zero, which defines the critical DMI energy constant Dc=4AK/. Therefore, the domain wall energy would be negative and the chiral domain walls should proliferate if D Dc, and the methods that can modulate D and Dc to reduce have been explored. We have also reviewed the THE in MnGa/heavy metal bilayers. The largest THE signals have been found based on the MnGa films with smallest Dc, which correspondingly results in the smallest . The large topological portion of the Hall signal from the total Hall signal has been extracted in the whole temperature range from 5 to 300 K and the magnitude of fictitious magnetic field has been determined.

Chiral phase transition at 180° domain walls in ferroelectric PbTiO3 driven by epitaxial compressive strains

Chiral ferroelectric domain walls are theoretically predicted to be promising in novel electronic memory devices. In order to develop a chirality-based device, understanding the chiral phase transition is of great importance for chirality manipulation. In this work, we systematically studied the chiral phase transition at 180° domain walls in ferroelectric PbTiO3 (PTO) under epitaxial compressive strains by first principles calculations. It is found that with the increase of the compressive strain, the Bloch components decrease due to the coupling of polarization and strain, while the components normal to domain walls increase because of the large stress gradients. The domain wall changes from a mixed Ising-Bloch type to the Ising type. It is also found that the domain wall energy increases with the increment of compressive strain, indicating that the spacings of 180° domain walls would be large for the highly compressed PTO films. These findings may provide useful information for the development of novel ferroelectric devices.

Thermally stable azo-substituted bent-core nematogens: observation of chiral domains in the nematic mesophases composed of smectic nano clusters

ABSTRACTIn an effort to synthesise thermally stable bent-core nematogens with fairly low transition temperatures and wide nematic mesophase range, we have synthesised five new series of azo-substituted bent-core compounds without Schiff’s base unit. Here, we studied the effect of different lateral substituents (–CH3 and –Cl), at two different positions in one of the arms, on the mesogenic properties. We found that such variation in the molecular architecture has a clear-cut impact on the transition temperatures as well as the liquid crystalline properties. The mesogenic properties of these compounds were studied using polarising optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The exact nature of different mesophases is investigated using X-ray diffraction studies. The results obtained indicated the presence of smectic nano clusters in the nematic mesophases of these compounds. We observed domains of opposite handedness in these nematic phases. The unusual properties of these mesophases were investigated by electro-optical studies. The electro-convection pattern study showed that these nematic mesophases are of negative dielectric anisotropic in nature. The compounds synthesised here exhibit photo-switching both in solution and in their nematic mesophases, a property that can be exploited for practical applications.

Anomalous magnetic moments as evidence of chiral superconductivity in a Bi/Ni bilayer

There have been continuous efforts in searching for unconventional superconductivity over the past five decades. Compared to the well-established d-wave superconductivity in cuprates, the existence of superconductivity with other high-angular-momentum pairing symmetries is less conclusive. Bi/Ni epitaxial bilayer is a potential unconventional superconductor with broken time reversal symmetry (TRS), for that it demonstrates superconductivity and ferromagnetism simultaneously at low temperatures. We employ a specially designed superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) to detect, on the Bi/Ni bilayer, the orbital magnetic moment which is expected if the TRS is broken. An anomalous hysteretic magnetic response has been observed in the superconducting state, providing the evidence for the existence of chiral superconducting domains in the material.

Dynamical depinning of chiral domain walls

The domain wall depinning field represents the minimum magnetic field needed to move a domain wall, typically pinned by samples' disorder or patterned constrictions. Conventionally, such field is considered independent on the Gilbert damping since it is assumed to be the field at which the Zeeman energy equals the pinning energy barrier (both damping independent). Here, we analyse numerically the domain wall depinning field as function of the Gilbert damping in a system with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Contrary to expectations, we find that the depinning field depends on the Gilbert damping and that it strongly decreases for small damping parameters. We explain this dependence with a simple one-dimensional model and we show that the reduction of the depinning field is related to the internal domain wall dynamics, proportional to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, and the finite size of the pinning barriers.

Interface currents and magnetization in singlet-triplet superconducting heterostructures: Role of chiral and helical domains

Chiral and helical domain walls are generic defects of topological spin-triplet superconductors. We study theoretically the magnetic and transport properties of superconducting singlet-triplet-singlet heterostructure as a function of the phase difference between the singlet leads in the presence of chiral and helical domains inside the spin-triplet region. The local inversion symmetry breaking at the singlet-triplet interface allows the emergence of a static phase-controlled magnetization, and generally yields both spin and charge currents flowing along the edges. The parity of the domain wall number affects the relative orientation of the interface moments and currents, while in some cases the domain walls themselves contribute to spin and charge transport. We demonstrate that singlet-triplet heterostructures are a generic prototype to generate and control non-dissipative spin and charge effects, putting them in a broader class of systems exhibiting spin-Hall, anomalous Hall effects and similar phenomena. Features of the electron transport and magnetic effects at the interfaces can be employed to assess the presence of domains in chiral/helical superconductors.

Magnetic antiskyrmions above room temperature in tetragonal Heusler materials.

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically stable, vortex-like objects surrounded by chiral boundaries that separate a region of reversed magnetization from the surrounding magnetized material. They are closely related to nanoscopic chiral magnetic domain walls, which could be used as memory and logic elements for conventional and neuromorphic computing applications that go beyond Moore's law. Of particular interest is 'racetrack memory', which is composed of vertical magnetic nanowires, each accommodating of the order of 100 domain walls, and that shows promise as a solid state, non-volatile memory with exceptional capacity and performance. Its performance is derived from the very high speeds (up to one kilometre per second) at which chiral domain walls can be moved with nanosecond current pulses in synthetic antiferromagnet racetracks. Because skyrmions are essentially composed of a pair of chiral domain walls closed in on themselves, but are, in principle, more stable to perturbations than the component domain walls themselves, they are attractive for use in spintronic applications, notably racetrack memory. Stabilization of skyrmions has generally been achieved in systems with broken inversion symmetry, in which the asymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction modifies the uniform magnetic state to a swirling state. Depending on the crystal symmetry, two distinct types of skyrmions have been observed experimentally, namely, Bloch and Néel skyrmions. Here we present the experimental manifestation of another type of skyrmion-the magnetic antiskyrmion-in acentric tetragonal Heusler compounds with D2d crystal symmetry. Antiskyrmions are characterized by boundary walls that have alternating Bloch and Néel type as one traces around the boundary. A spiral magnetic ground-state, which propagates in the tetragonal basal plane, is transformed into an antiskyrmion lattice state under magnetic fields applied along the tetragonal axis over a wide range of temperatures. Direct imaging by Lorentz transmission electron microscopy shows field-stabilized antiskyrmion lattices and isolated antiskyrmions from 100 kelvin to well beyond room temperature, and zero-field metastable antiskyrmions at low temperatures. These results enlarge the family of magnetic skyrmions and pave the way to the engineering of complex bespoke designed skyrmionic structures.