A microscopic model for spiral ordering along (110) on the MnSi lattice

Abstract

We study an extended Heisenberg model on the MnSi lattice. In the cubic B20 crystal structure of MnSi, Mn atoms form lattices of of corner-shared equilateral triangles. We find an ubiquitous spiral ordering along (110) for J1 <0, and J2=J3 >0, where J1, J2, and J3 are 1st, 2nd and 3rd nearest neighbor Heisenberg interactions, respectively. While the ordering direction of (110) is reasonably robust to the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, it can be shifted to the (111) direction with the introduction of a magnetic anisotropy term for small J2/|J1|. We discuss the possible relevance of these results to the partially ordered state recently reported in MnSi.