Understanding the role of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) has been crucial to controlling magnetic anisotropy in magnetic multilayer films. It has been shown that electronic structure can be altered via interface SOC by varying the superlattice structure,
resulting in spontaneous magnetization perpendicular or parallel to the plane. In lieu of magnetic thin films, we study the similarly anisotropic helimagnet Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$, where the spin polarization direction, controlled by the applied magnetic field, can modify the electronic structure. As a result, the direction of spin polarization can modulate the density of states, and in turn affect the in-plane electrical conductivity. In Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$, we found an enhancement of in-plane conductivity when the spin polarization is out-of-plane, as compared to in-plane spin polarization. This is consistent with the increase of density of states near the Fermi energy at the same spin configuration, found from first principles calculations. We also observe unusual field dependence of the Hall signal in the same temperature range. This is unlikely to originate from the non-collinear spin texture, but rather further indicates strong dependence of electronic structure on spin orientation relative to the plane.
In this letter we describe the ground-state magnetic structure of the highly anisotropic helimagnet Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$ in a magnetic field. A Heisenberg spin model with Dyzaloshinkii-Moriya interactions and magne- tocrystalline anisotropy allows the g
round state spin structure to be calculated for magnetic fields of arbitrary strength and direction. Comparison with magnetization measurements shows excellent agreement with the predicted spin structure.
We report a study of the topological Hall effect (THE) in Fe-doped MnSi and compare with results from pure MnSi under pressure. We find that Fe doping increases the THE, indicating an enhancement of the magnitude of the emergent gauge field. This is
consistent with the concurrent reduction in the length scale of the skyrmion lattice. For both pressurized and doped samples, we calculate the emergent magnetic field based on the size of the measured THE, and compare it with a theoretical upper-bound. We find that the ratio of these two remains more or less constant with pressure or Fe doping, but differs greatly from that of pure MnSi at ambient pressure. We discuss the implications of this ratio with respect to trends in the saturated magnetic moment and helical pitch length as T_C rightarrow 0 via doping and pressure, respectively.
We report the observation of a highly unusual Hall current in the MnSi in an applied pressure P = 6-12 kbar. The Hall conductivity displays a distinctive step-wise field profile quite unlike any other Hall response observed in solids. We identify the
origin of this Hall current with the effective real-space magnetic field due to chiral spin textures, which may be a precursor of the partial-order state at P>14.6 kbar. We discuss evidence favoring the chiral spin mechanism for the origin of the observed Hall anomaly.
