Critical spin-flip scattering at the helimagnetic transition of MnSi

We report spherical neutron polarimetry (SNP) and discuss the spin-flip scattering cross sections as well as the chiral fraction $η$ close to the helimagnetic transition in MnSi. For our study, we have developed a miniaturised SNP device that allows fast data collection when used in small angle scattering geometry with an area detector. Critical spin-flip scattering is found to be governed by chiral paramagnons that soften on a sphere in momentum space. Carefully accounting for the incoherent spin-flip background, we find that the resulting chiral fraction $η$ decreases gradually above the helimagnetic transition reflecting a strongly renormalised chiral correlation length with a temperature dependence in excellent quantitative agreement with the Brazovskii theory for a fluctuation-induced first order transition.

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