Single magnetic chirality in the magnetoelectric NdFe3(11BO3)4

We have performed an extensive study of single crystals of the magnetoelectric NdFe3 ((BO3)-B-11)(4) by means of a combination of single-crystal neutron diffraction and spherical neutron polarimetry. Our investigation did not detect significant deviations at low temperatures from space group R32 concerning the chemical structure. With respect to magnetic ordering our combined results demonstrate that in the commensurate magnetic phase below T-N approximate to 30 K all three magnetic Fe moments and the magnetic Nd moment are aligned ferromagnetically in the basal hexagonal plane but align antiferromagnetically between adjacent planes. The phase transition to the low-temperature incommensurate (IC) magnetic structure observed at T-IC approximate to 13.5 K appears to be continuous. By means of polarized neutron studies it could be shown that in the incommensurate magnetic phase the magnetic structure of NdFe3((BO3)-B-11)(4) is transformed into a long-period antiferromagnetic helix with single chirality. Close to the commensurate-incommensurate phase transition third-order harmonics were observed, which in addition indicate the formation of magnetic solitons.