Chiral spin-wave excitations of the spin-5/2 trimers in the langasite compound Ba3NbFe3Si2O14

The inelastic scattering of neutrons from magnetic excitations in the antiferromagnetic phase of the langasite compound Ba3NbFe3Si2O14 is analyzed theoretically. In the calculations presented, the strongly coupled spin-5/2 Fe triangles are accounted for as trimerized units. The weaker interactions between the trimers are included within the mean-field/random-phase approximation. The theory is compared with linear spin-wave theory, and a model is developed which leads to good agreement with the published results from unpolarized and polarized neutron-scattering experiments.