title: MnSb2O6: a polar magnet with a chiral crystal structure.
abstract: Structural and magnetic chiralities are found to coexist in a small group of materials in which they produce intriguing phenomenologies such as the recently discovered Skyrmion phases. Here, we describe a previously unknown manifestation of this interplay in MnSb(2)O(6), a trigonal oxide with a chiral crystal structure. Unlike all other known cases, the MnSb(2)O(6) magnetic structure is based on corotating cycloids rather than helices. The coupling to the structural chirality is provided by a magnetic axial vector, related to the so-called vector chirality. We show that this unique arrangement is the magnetic ground state of the symmetric-exchange Hamiltonian, based on ab initio theoretical calculations of the Heisenberg exchange interactions, and is stabilized by out-of-plane anisotropy. MnSb(2)O(6) is predicted to be multiferroic with a unique ferroelectric switching mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom. r.johnson1@physics.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: K
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authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Chapon
authors.forename: F
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authors.lastname: Fabrizi
authors.forename: N
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authors.lastname: Perks
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Manuel
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: S-W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Radaelli