Presence of a chiral soliton lattice in the chiral helimagnet MnTa$_{3}$S$_{6}$

Abstract

Chiral helimagnetism was investigated in transition-metal intercalated dichalcogenide single crystals of MnTa$_3$S$_6$. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments revealed the presence of harmonic chiral helimagnetic order, which was successfully detected as a pair of satellite peaks in the SANS pattern. The magnetization data are also supportive of the presence of chiral soliton lattice (CSL) phase in MnTa$_3$S$_6$. The observed features are summarized in the phase diagram of MnTa$_3$S$_6$, which is in strong contrast with that observed in other dichalcogenides such as CrNb$_3$S$_6$ and CrTa$_3$S$_6$. The presence of the remanent state provides tunable capability of the number of chiral solitons at zero magnetic field in the CSL system, which may be useful for memory device applications.