The influence of antiferromagnetic spin cantings on the magnetic helix pitch in cubic helimagnets.

In cubic helimagnets MnSi and CuOSeOwith their nearly isotropic magnetic properties, the magnetic structure undergoes helical deformation, which is almost completely determined by the helicoid wavenumberk=D/J, where magnetization field stiffnessJis associated with isotropic spin exchange, andDis a pseudoscalar value characterizing the antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. Another magnetic feature of these crystals, also caused by the DM interactions, are antiferromagnetic spin cantings, similar to the ferromagnetic cantings responsible for the phenomenon of weak ferromagnetism. Here we show that cantings can strongly influence the helical order through the value of the parameterD.

Helicity-dependent resonant X-ray scattering in CuBO.

Exploitation of X-ray circular polarized beams to study forbidden Bragg reflections and new information that could be obtained in these experiments are discussed. It is shown that the intensities of such reflections can be different for the right- and left-circular polarizations (i.e.

X-ray natural circular dichroism in langasite crystal.

Optical activity in the X-ray range stems from the electric-dipole-electric-quadrupole interference terms mixing multipoles of opposite parity, and can be observed exclusively in systems with broken inversion symmetry. The gyration tensor formalism is used to describe the X-ray optical activity in langasite LaGaSiO crystal with the P321 space group. An experimental study of the X-ray natural circular dichroism (XNCD) near the Ga K-edge in LaGaSiO single crystal was performed at ESRF beamline ID12, both along and perpendicular to the crystal optical axis.

Band Filling Control of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in Weakly Ferromagnetic Insulators.

We observe and explain theoretically a dramatic evolution of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in the series of isostructural weak ferromagnets, MnCO_{3}, FeBO_{3}, CoCO_{3}, and NiCO_{3}. The sign of the interaction is encoded in the phase of the x-ray magnetic diffraction amplitude, observed through interference with resonant quadrupole scattering. We find very good quantitative agreement with first-principles electronic structure calculations, reproducing both sign and magnitude through the series, and propose a simplified "toy model" to explain the change in sign with 3d shell filling.

Antiferromagnetic spin cantings as a driving force of ferroelectricity in multiferroic CuOSeO.

Ferroelectric properties of cubic chiral magnet CuOSeO can emerge due to the spin noncollinearity induced by antiferromagnetic cantings. The cantings are the result of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and in many ways similar to the ferromagnetic cantings in weak ferromagnets. An expression for the local electric polarization is derived, including terms with gradients of magnetization [Formula: see text].