Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: The spin chirality, created by magnetic atoms, has been comprehensively understood to generate and control the magneto-optical effects. In comparison, the role of the crystal chirality that relates to nonmagnetic atoms has received much less attention. Here, we theoretically discover the crystal chirality magneto-optical (CCMO) effects, which depend on the chirality of crystal structures that originates from the rearrangement of nonmagnetic atoms. We show that the CCMO effects exist in many collinear antiferromagnets, such as ${\mathrm{RuO}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{CoNb}}_{3}{\mathrm{S}}_{6}$, which has a local and global crystal chirality, respectively. The key character of the CCMO effects is the sign change if the crystal chirality reverses. The magnitudes of the CCMO spectra can be effectively manipulated by reorienting the N\'eel vector with the help of an external electric field, and the spectral integrals are strongly correlated to magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy bridging by orbital magnetic moments.
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3112850394