Discovery of antiferromagnetic chiral helical ordered state in trigonal GdNi$_3$Ga$_9$

Abstract

We have performed magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, and specific heat measurements on a chiral magnet GdNi$_3$Ga$_9$, belonging to the trigonal space group $R32$ (\#155). A magnetic phase transition takes place at $T_{\rm N}$ = 19.5 K. By applying a magnetic field along the $a$ axis at 2 K, the magnetization curve exhibits two jumps at $\sim$ 3 kOe and = 45 kOe. To determine the magnetic structure, we performed a resonant X-ray diffraction experiment by utilizing a circularly polarized beam. It is shown that a long-period antiferromagnetic (AFM) helical order is realized at zero field. The Gd spins in the honeycomb layer are coupled in an antiferromagnetic manner in the $c$ plane and rotate with a propagation vector $q$ = (0, 0, 1.485). The period of the helix is 66.7 unit cells ($\sim 180$~nm). In magnetic fields above 3~kOe applied perpendicular to the helical $c$ axis, the AFM helical order changes to an AFM order with $q$ = (0, 0, 1.5).