Spontaneous reversal of spin chirality and competing phases in the topological magnet EuAl4

Spontaneous reversal of spin chirality and competing phases in the topological magnet EuAl4 | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Spontaneous reversal of spin chirality and competing phases in the topological magnet EuAl 4 Anuradha Vibhakar, Dmitry Khalyavin, Fabio Orlandi, Jaime Moya, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4312412/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Materials exhibiting a spontaneous reversal of spin chirality have the potential to drive the widespread adoption of chiral magnets in spintronic devices. Unlike the majority of chiral magnets that require the application of an external field to reverse the spin chirality, we observed the spin chirality to spontaneously reverse in the topological magnet EuAl 4 . Using resonant magnetic x-ray scattering we demonstrate that all four magnetic phases in EuAl 4 are single-k, where the first two magnetic phases are characterized by spin density wave order and the last two by helical spin order. We show a single spin chirality was stabilised across the 1mm 2 sample, and that the reversal of spin chirality occurred whilst maintaining a helical magnetic structure. At the onset of the helical magnetic order, the crystal symmetry lowers to a chiral monoclinic space group, explaining the asymmetry in the chiral spin order, and establishing a mechanism by which the spin chirality could reverse via magnetostructural coupling. Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterial.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4312412","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":307816696,"identity":"203580e7-6108-499d-ad8b-dddfea0ee183","order_by":0,"name":"Anuradha 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EuAl\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature 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Unlike the majority of chiral magnets that require the application of an external field to reverse the spin chirality, we observed the spin chirality to spontaneously reverse in the topological magnet EuAl\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e. Using resonant magnetic x-ray scattering we demonstrate that all four magnetic phases in EuAl\u003csub\u003e4 are single-k, where the first two magnetic phases are characterized by spin density wave order and the last two by helical spin order. We show a single spin chirality was stabilised across the 1mm\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e sample, and that the reversal of spin chirality occurred whilst maintaining a helical magnetic structure. At the onset of the helical magnetic order, the crystal symmetry lowers to a chiral monoclinic space group, explaining the asymmetry in the chiral spin order, and establishing a mechanism by which the spin chirality could reverse via magnetostructural coupling.","manuscriptTitle":"Spontaneous reversal of spin chirality and competing phases in the topological magnet EuAl4","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-06-11 16:27:10","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4312412/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"communications-physics","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"commsphys","sideBox":"Learn more about [Communications Physics](http://www.nature.com/commsphys/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Communications Physics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Communications Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"1e851d2e-dfee-47c9-b635-197d5b408334","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 11th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-09-11T17:30:10+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-06-11 16:27:10","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4312412","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4312412","identity":"rs-4312412","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}