Tilted spirals and low-temperature skyrmions in Cu2OSeO3

The bulk helimagnet Cu2OSeO3 represents a unique example in the family of B20 cubic helimagnets exhibiting a tilted spiral and skyrmion phase at low temperatures when the magnetic field is applied along the easy (001) crystallographic direction. Here we present a systematic study of the stability and ordering of these low-temperature magnetic states. We focus our attention on the temperature and field dependencies of the tilted spiral state that we observe persisting up to above T = 35 K, i.e., up to higher temperatures than reported so far. We discuss these results in the frame of the phenomenological theory introduced by Dzyaloshinskii in an attempt to reach a quantitative description of the experimental findings. We find that the anisotropy constants, which are the drivers behind the observed behavior, exhibit a pronounced temperature dependence. This explains the differences in the behavior observed at high temperatures (above T = 18 K), where the cubic anisotropy is weak, and at low temperatures (below T = 18 K), where a strong cubic anisotropy induces an abrupt appearance of the tilted spirals out of the conical state and enhances the stability of skyrmions.

Automated summary

This study systematically investigates the stability and ordering of the tilted spiral state in the B20 cubic helimagnet Cu2OSeO3. The temperature and field dependencies of this state are analyzed, and it is found that the tilted spiral state can persist up to temperatures higher than previously reported. The observed behavior is explained by the temperature dependence of the anisotropy constants.