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.

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.

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].

Implications of the causality principle for ultra chiral metamaterials.

Chiral metamaterials - artificial subwavelength structures with broken mirror symmetry - demonstrate outstanding degree of optical chirality that exhibits sophisticated spectral behavior and can eventually reach extreme values. Based on the fundamental causality principle we show how one can unambiguously relate the metamaterial circular dichroism and optical activity by the generalized Kramers-Kronig relations. Contrary to the conventional relations, the generalized ones provide a unique opportunity of extracting information on material-dependent zeroes of transmission coefficient in the upper half plane of complex frequency.

Weak antiferromagnetic ordering induced by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and pure magnetic reflections in MnSi-type crystals.

A symmetry analysis of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction in MnSi-type crystals reveals a nontrivial antiferromagnetic pattern of tilted Mn moments remaining even after an unwinding of the ground-state helix by a strong magnetic field. The remaining tilts are caused by that component of the DM vector which is perpendicular to the component responsible for helical spiraling; both components are evaluated and related to the atomic structure using a simple model. It is shown that the tilting should induce pure magnetic reflections 00ℓ(ℓ=2n+1) in neutron or x-ray magnetic scattering.

Polarization anisotropy of X-ray atomic factors and 'forbidden' resonant reflections.

Symmetry and physical aspects of 'forbidden' reflections excited by a local polarization anisotropy of the X-ray susceptibility are surveyed. Such reflections are observed near absorption edges where the anisotropy is caused by distortions of the atomic electronic states owing to interaction with neighbouring atoms. As a consequence, they allow for extracting nontrivial information about the resonant atom's local environment and their physical conditions.

Point-defect-induced forbidden reflections in resonant X-ray scattering.

Point defects in crystals cause displacements of neighbouring atoms and hence become the source of an additional anisotropy of the X-ray resonant scattering amplitude. This anisotropy can induce 'forbidden' Bragg reflections near absorption edges, called point-defect-induced (PDI) reflections, which are absent in non-resonant X-ray scattering and in resonant X-ray scattering by perfect crystals. The deformation of external electron shells is the physical reason for this phenomenon.