Cargando…

Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering

Magnetic topological insulators and semimetals are a class of crystalline solids whose properties are strongly influenced by the coupling between non-trivial electronic topology and magnetic spin configurations. Such materials can host exotic electromagnetic responses. Among these are topological in...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Soh, Jian-Rui, Bombardi, Alessandro, Mila, Frédéric, Rahn, Marein C., Prabhakaran, Dharmalingam, Francoual, Sonia, Rønnow, Henrik M., Boothroyd, Andrew T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10256702/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37296136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39138-5
_version_ 1785057162735648768
author Soh, Jian-Rui
Bombardi, Alessandro
Mila, Frédéric
Rahn, Marein C.
Prabhakaran, Dharmalingam
Francoual, Sonia
Rønnow, Henrik M.
Boothroyd, Andrew T.
author_facet Soh, Jian-Rui
Bombardi, Alessandro
Mila, Frédéric
Rahn, Marein C.
Prabhakaran, Dharmalingam
Francoual, Sonia
Rønnow, Henrik M.
Boothroyd, Andrew T.
author_sort Soh, Jian-Rui
collection PubMed
description Magnetic topological insulators and semimetals are a class of crystalline solids whose properties are strongly influenced by the coupling between non-trivial electronic topology and magnetic spin configurations. Such materials can host exotic electromagnetic responses. Among these are topological insulators with certain types of antiferromagnetic order which are predicted to realize axion electrodynamics. Here we investigate the highly unusual helimagnetic phases recently reported in EuIn(2)As(2), which has been identified as a candidate for an axion insulator. Using resonant elastic x-ray scattering we show that the two types of magnetic order observed in EuIn(2)As(2) are spatially uniform phases with commensurate chiral magnetic structures, ruling out a possible phase-separation scenario, and we propose that entropy associated with low energy spin fluctuations plays a significant role in driving the phase transition between them. Our results establish that the magnetic order in EuIn(2)As(2) satisfies the symmetry requirements for an axion insulator.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10256702
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-102567022023-06-11 Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering Soh, Jian-Rui Bombardi, Alessandro Mila, Frédéric Rahn, Marein C. Prabhakaran, Dharmalingam Francoual, Sonia Rønnow, Henrik M. Boothroyd, Andrew T. Nat Commun Article Magnetic topological insulators and semimetals are a class of crystalline solids whose properties are strongly influenced by the coupling between non-trivial electronic topology and magnetic spin configurations. Such materials can host exotic electromagnetic responses. Among these are topological insulators with certain types of antiferromagnetic order which are predicted to realize axion electrodynamics. Here we investigate the highly unusual helimagnetic phases recently reported in EuIn(2)As(2), which has been identified as a candidate for an axion insulator. Using resonant elastic x-ray scattering we show that the two types of magnetic order observed in EuIn(2)As(2) are spatially uniform phases with commensurate chiral magnetic structures, ruling out a possible phase-separation scenario, and we propose that entropy associated with low energy spin fluctuations plays a significant role in driving the phase transition between them. Our results establish that the magnetic order in EuIn(2)As(2) satisfies the symmetry requirements for an axion insulator. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10256702/ /pubmed/37296136 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39138-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Soh, Jian-Rui
Bombardi, Alessandro
Mila, Frédéric
Rahn, Marein C.
Prabhakaran, Dharmalingam
Francoual, Sonia
Rønnow, Henrik M.
Boothroyd, Andrew T.
Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering
title Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering
title_full Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering
title_fullStr Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering
title_full_unstemmed Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering
title_short Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering
title_sort understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10256702/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37296136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39138-5
work_keys_str_mv AT sohjianrui understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering
AT bombardialessandro understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering
AT milafrederic understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering
AT rahnmareinc understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering
AT prabhakarandharmalingam understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering
AT francoualsonia understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering
AT rønnowhenrikm understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering
AT boothroydandrewt understandingunconventionalmagneticorderinacandidateaxioninsulatorbyresonantelasticxrayscattering