SPICE Workshop on Quantum Functionalities of Nanomagnets, June 17th - 19th 2025
Aisha Aqeel
Nature exhibits remarkable patterns, and it’s intriguing to observe how individual components interact
to create such complexity. In magnets, striking patterns can form even without inversion symmetry.
Chiral helimagnetic materials, with their twisting magnetic structures—whether topologically trivial
or not—exhibit collective magnetic excitations across a broad frequency spectrum, ranging from a few
GHz to several THz [1]. These unique properties position helimagnets as promising candidates for
spintronics and unconventional computing applications [2]. However, achieving this potential requires
ultraclean magnetic systems with minimal losses and a comprehensive understanding of their
magnetization dynamics.
In this talk, I will discuss the fundamental properties of chiral helimagnets and how to detect both
their static and dynamic magnetization electrically, with a particular emphasis on the helimagnetic
insulator Cu₂OSeO₃ [3]. Furthermore, we investigated the magnetization behavior in heterostructures
composed of a Cu₂OSeO₃ single crystal and a polycrystalline NiFe (Py) thin film. Our findings
revealed significant changes in the field dependence of the skyrmion phase within these
heterostructures. These results highlight the importance of combining cubic chiral magnets with
suitable magnetic materials to effectively modify both the static and dynamic magnetization properties
of skyrmions.
[1] M. Weiler, A. Aqeel, M. Mostovoy, A. Leonov, A., S. Geprägs, S. ... & S. T. Goennenwein,
Phys. Rev. Lett., 119(23), 237204 (2017).
[2] O. Lee, T. Wei, K. D. Stenning, J. C. Gartside, D. Prestwood, S. Seki, A. Aqeel ... H. Kurebayashi,
Nat. Mater. 23(1), 79-87 (2024).
[3] A. Aqeel, J. Sahliger, T. Taniguchi, S. Mändl, D. Mettus, ... C. H. Back, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126(1),
017202 (2021).