Chiral surface spin textures in Cu₂OSeO₃ unveiled by soft x-ray scattering in specular reflection geometry

Resonant elastic soft x-ray magnetic scattering (XRMS) is a powerful tool to explore long-periodic spin textures in single crystals. However, due to the limited momentum transfer range imposed by long wavelengths of photons in the soft x-ray region, Bragg diffraction is restricted to crystals with the large lattice parameters. Alternatively, small angle x-ray scattering has been involved in the soft energy x-ray range which, however, brings in difficulties with the sample preparation that involves focused ion beam milling to thin down the crystal to below a few hundred nm thickness. We show how to circumvent these restrictions by using XRMS in specular reflection from a sub-nanometer smooth crystal surface. The method allows observing diffraction peaks from the helical and conical spin modulations at the surface of a Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ single crystal and probing their corresponding chirality as contributions to the dichroic scattered intensity. The results suggest a promising way to carry out XRMS studies on plethora of noncentrosymmetric systems hitherto unexplored with soft x-rays due to the absence of the commensurate Bragg peaks in the available momentum transfer range.