Magnetic soliton confinement and discretization effects arising from macroscopic coherence in a chiral spin soliton lattice

Abstract

Understanding the conditions determining the appearance of stable chiral spin topological excitations is a central problem in condensed matter physics and related fields. This work provides the first unambiguous demonstration of discretization due to the macroscopic phase coherence and metastability for chiral topological excitations, and evidence of the mechanisms underlying its appearance. This was achieved through the use of an advanced Lorentz electron microscope with the highest possible resolution imaging of spin textures. The results provide new insights into dynamics in the phase transition of the chiral system, and will raise new questions concerning the mechanisms governing loss of chiral ordering.