Symmetry breaking, slow relaxation dynamics, and topological defects at the field-induced helix reorientation in MnSi
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Abstract
The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in the cubic chiral magnet MnSi stabilizes a magnetic helix - a periodic one-dimensional modulation of the magnetization. The orientation of this helix is determined by weak magnetocrystalline anisotropies, but it can be reoriented by applying a magnetic field. Here, the authors have studied this reorientation process by means of small-angle neutron scattering and susceptibility measurements. Their results are in excellent agreement with predictions of an effective mean-field theory taking into account the precise symmetries of the crystal structure. Measurements of the magnetization and ac susceptibility provide evidence that the reorientation of helimagnetic domains is associated with large relaxation times exceeding seconds. In addition, hysteresis at the Ising transitions indicates, within the same theoretical framework, the formation of an abundance of plastic deformations of the helical spin order. These deformations comprise topologically nontrivial disclinations, reminiscent of the skyrmions discovered recently in the same class of materials.