Magnetic relaxation phenomena in the Chiral Magnet Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$Si: An ac susceptibility study

Abstract

We present a systematic study of the ac susceptibility of the chiral magnet Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$Si with $x$ = 0.30 covering four orders of magnitude in frequencies from 0.1 Hz to 1 kHz, with particular emphasis to the pronounced history dependence. Characteristic relaxation times ranging from a few milliseconds to tens of seconds are observed around the skyrmion lattice A-phase, the helical-to-conical transition and in a region above $T_C$. The distribution of relaxation frequencies around the A-phase is broad, asymmetric and originates from multiple coexisting relaxation processes. The pronounced dependence of the magnetic phase diagram on the magnetic history and cooling rates as well as the asymmetric frequency dependence and slow dynamics suggest more complicated physical phenomena in Fe$_{0.7}$Co$_{0.3}$Si than in other chiral magnets.