What is it about?
Chirality is a property of materials where their mirror image is not identical to the original—just like our left and right hands. This unique characteristic creates two distinct states, which could potentially be used to store digital information, much like the "0" and "1" states in conventional computing. A promising material platform for such applications is chiral magnets, which exhibit chirality in their magnetic texture. In this study, we investigated chiral magnets and uncovered the underlying mechanism behind one-way electron flow, where electrons move in opposite directions depending on chirality.
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Why is it important?
Harnessing chirality for digital information requires a robust and efficient way to read out the "0"s and "1"s, yet this remains a challenge. Chiral magnets exhibit one-way electron flow, known as the rectification effect, directly linked to their chirality. However, its detailed mechanism has remained unclear. We demonstrated here that the spiral alignment of magnetic moments—or in other words, a "magnetic twist" in the material—creates an asymmetric landscape for electrons traveling inside it, inducing this effect. Our findings provide a microscopic understanding of rectification in chiral magnets, offering a design principle for efficient information readout and storage.
Perspectives
We believe magnetic chirality offers a promising avenue for information storage, as it is robust against disturbances and avoids the stray field issues of conventional ferromagnets. To realize this, it is crucial to understand how to control (write) and detect (read) magnetic chirality. This study sheds light on the detection aspect by investigating a unique quantum material, α-EuP₃—a chiral magnet with a simple electronic structure, ideal for studying the interplay between magnetism and electron transport. By tuning its magnetic state, we revealed how the chiral magnetic order induces asymmetry in the band structure, responsible for the one-way electron flow. This work was a fruitful collaboration between experiment and theory, and we hope it provides meaningful insights into the exciting idea of chiral information storage, inspiring further exploration in this direction.
Alex Mayo
Tohoku Daigaku
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Band asymmetry–driven nonreciprocal electronic transport in a helimagnetic semimetal α-EuP
3, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2405839122.
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Resources
Electric current control of spin helicity in an itinerant helimagnet
First discovery of electric current–induced control of the "magnetic twist" in a helimagnetic metal
Room temperature chirality switching and detection in a helimagnetic MnAu2 thin film
Room-temperature demonstration of chirality information readout and writing in a thin-film device
Magnetic Generation and Switching of Topological Quantum Phases in a Trivial Semimetal α−EuP3
Synthesis and observation of a giant anomalous Hall effect induced by topological band reconstruction in α−EuP₃—a "magnetic variant" of black phosphorus
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