Strain-engineered incommensurability in epitaxial Heisenberg antiferromagnets

Neutron-diffraction studies of ZnTe/MnSe strained-layer superlattices show the formation of an incommensurate helimagnetic phase below 70 K. The incommensurate ordering is characterized by a wave vector that can be tuned by both strain and dimensionality. Furthermore, the incommensurate helical pitch varies smoothly with temperature, without locking in at any commensurate values.