English

Easy-cone state mediating the spin reorientation in topological kagome magnet Fe$_3$Sn$_2$

Materials Science 2025-02-06 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

We investigated temperature-driven spin reorientation (SR) in the itinerant kagome magnet Fe3_3Sn2_2 using high-resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, magnetometry, and magnetic force microscopy (MFM), further supported by phenomenological analysis. Our study reveals a crossover from the state with easy-plane anisotropy to the high-temperature state with uniaxial easy-axis anisotropy taking place between 40130\sim40-130~ K through an intermediate easy-cone (or tilted spin) state. This state, induced by the interplay between the anisotropy constants K1K_1 and K2K_2, is clearly manifested in the thermal evolution of the magnetic structure factor, which reveals a gradual change of the SR angle θ\mathbf{\theta} between 4013040-130~K. We also found that the SR is accompanied by a magnetoelastic effect. Zero-field MFM images across the SR range show a transformation in surface magnetic patterns from a dendritic structure at 120~K, to domain wall dominated MFM contrast at 40~K.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.03239,
  title  = {Easy-cone state mediating the spin reorientation in topological kagome magnet Fe$_3$Sn$_2$},
  author = {L. Prodan and D. M. Evans and A. S. Sukhanov and S. E. Nikitin and A. A. Tsirlin and L. Puntingam and M. C. Rahn and L. Chioncel and V. Tsurkan and I. Kezsmarki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.03239},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

24 pages, 5 figures, 75 references