Spin flexoelectricity and chiral spin structures in magnetic films

In this short review a broad range of chiral phenomena observed in magnetic films (spin cycloid and skyrmion structures formation as well as chirality dependent domain wall motion) is considered under the perspective of spin flexoelectricity, i.e. the relation between bending of magnetization pattern and electric polarization. The similarity and the difference between the spin flexoelectricity and the newly emerged notion of spin flexomagnetism are discussed. The phenomenological arguments based on the geometrical idea of curvature-induced effects are supported by analysis of the microscopic mechanisms of spin flexoelectricity based on three-site ion indirect exchange and twisted RKKY interaction models. •Magnetic structure formation in thin films is analogous to flexoelectric phenomena in crystals.•The microscopic mechanism of spin flexoelectricity is the antisymmetric exchange.•Spin cycloid in thin film of metals can be the result of Rashba interaction in 2DEG.•The chirality-dependent Néel-type magnetic domain wall motion is observed in electric field.