We study the gyrotropic magnetic effect (GME), the low-frequency limit of optical gyrotropy, in metals and semimetals coupled to chiral spin textures. In these systems, the chiral spin texture which lacks inversion symmetry can imprint itself upon the electronic structure through Hund’s coupling, leading to novel low-frequency optical activity. Using perturbation theory and numerical diagonalization of both relativistic and nonrelativistic models of conduction electrons coupled to spin textures, we analyze how the GME manifests in both single-$q$ and multi-$q$ textures. Analytical expressions for the rotatory power are derived in terms of universal scaling functions. Estimates based on realistic material parameters reveal an experimentally viable range of values for the rotatory power. The GME arises from the orbital and spin magnetic moments of conduction electrons, with the orbital part closely tied to Berry curvature and playing a significant role in relativistic metals but not so in nonrelativistic metals where there is no inherent Berry curvature. The spin contribution to the GME can be significant in nonrelativistic metals with a large Fermi energy. Our Letter shows that the GME can be a sensitive probe of magnetic chirality and symmetry breaking in metallic chiral magnets.

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• Weyl fermions
• Chiral magnets
• Methods in transport