TY - JOUR
AU - Gao, Shang
AU - Zaharko, Oksana
AU - Tsurkan, Vladimir
AU - Su, Yixi
AU - White, Jonathan S.
AU - Tucker, Gregory S.
AU - Roessli, Bertrand
AU - Bourdarot, Frederic
AU - Sibille, Romain
AU - Chernyshov, Dmitry
AU - Fennell, Tom
AU - Loidl, Alois
AU - Rüegg, Christian
TI - Spiral spin-liquid and the emergence of a vortex-like state in MnSc2S4
JO - Nature physics
VL - 13
SN - 1745-2481
CY - Basingstoke
PB - Nature Publishing Group
M1 - FZJ-2017-01281
SP - 157-161
PY - 2017
AB - Spirals and helices are common motifs of long-range order in magnetic solids, and they may also be organized into more complex emergent structures such as magnetic skyrmions and vortices. A new type of spiral state, the spiral spin-liquid, in which spins fluctuate collectively as spirals, has recently been predicted to exist. Here, using neutron scattering techniques, we experimentally prove the existence of a spiral spin-liquid in MnSc2S4 by directly observing the ‘spiral surface’—a continuous surface of spiral propagation vectors in reciprocal space. We elucidate the multi-step ordering behaviour of the spiral spin-liquid, and discover a vortex-like triple-q phase on application of a magnetic field. Our results prove the effectiveness of the J1–J2 Hamiltonian on the diamond lattice as a model for the spiral spin-liquid state in MnSc2S4, and also demonstrate a new way to realize a magnetic vortex lattice through frustrated interactions.
LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000394070700022
DO - DOI:10.1038/nphys3914
UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/827075
ER -