English

Imprinting electrically switchable scalar spin chirality by anisotropic strain in a Kagome antiferromagnet

Materials Science 2025-12-02 v2 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

Topological chiral antiferromagnets, such as Mn3_{3}Sn, are emerging as promising materials for next-generation spintronic devices due to their intrinsic transport properties linked to exotic magnetic configurations. Here, we demonstrate that anisotropic strain in Mn3_{3}Sn thin films offers a novel approach to manipulate the magnetic ground state, unlocking new functionalities in this material. Anisotropic strain reduces the point group symmetry of the manganese (Mn) Kagome triangles from C3vC_{3v} to C1C_{1}, significantly altering the energy landscape of the magnetic states in Mn3_{3}Sn. This symmetry reduction enables even a tiny in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction to induce canting of the Mn spins out of the Kagome plane. The modified magnetic ground state introduces a finite scalar spin chirality and results in a significant Berry phase in momentum space. Consequently, a large anomalous Hall effect emerges in the Kagome plane at room temperature - an effect that is absent in the bulk material. Moreover, this two-fold degenerate magnetic state enables the creation of multiple-stable, non-volatile anomalous Hall resistance (AHR) memory states. These states are field-stable and can be controlled by thermal assisted current-induced magnetization switching requiring modest current densities and small bias fields, thereby offering a compelling new functionality in Mn3_{3}Sn for spintronic applications.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.01824,
  title  = {Imprinting electrically switchable scalar spin chirality by anisotropic strain in a Kagome antiferromagnet},
  author = {Debjoty Paul and Shivesh Yadav and Shikhar Gupta and Bikash Patra and Nilesh Kulkarni and Debashis Mondal and Kaushal Gavankar and Sourav K. Sahu and Biswarup Satpati and Bahadur Singh and Owen Benton and Shouvik Chatterjee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.01824},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

14 pages, 5 figures