Abstract
Spin-polarized current through helimagnets and the conductance modulation due to the chirality mismatch are studied numerically. The one-dimensional spiral magnet structure is obtained by taking into account the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the ferromagnetic interaction. Although the spiral magnetic structure consists of the components of the magnetization, the conduction electron through the spiral magnet is polarized in the direction, and its sign depends on the chirality of the spiral structure. We also investigate charge transport through the junction system consisting of two helimagnets. Similar to the giant magnetoresistance in the uniform ferromagnet, the conductance is reduced significantly by attaching the helimagnets with different chiralities. It is possible that our proposed mechanism can make use of the chirality measuring method by using electron transport and an alternative type of magnetoresistance using a topological property.
- Received 6 July 2016
- Revised 29 August 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.125143
©2016 American Physical Society