Inductance Meets Memory in the Quantum Magnet Mn3Si2Te6
Abstract
Orbital degrees of freedom offer a largely untapped route to emergent dynamical phenomena in correlated quantum materials. However, it remains unclear whether collective orbital states can intrinsically generate both reactive and memory functionalities in a bulk system. Here we show that in the ferrimagnet Mn3Si2Te6, nonequilibrium reconfiguration of chiral orbital currents produces both emergent inductance and nonvolatile memristance as intrinsic properties of a single crystal. At low frequency and under a magnetic field along the c axis, coherent orbital-current domains generate robust clockwise inductive I-V loops. At higher frequency and low field, current-driven first-order reconfiguration leads to incomplete reversal and metastable trapping, producing an intrinsic electromotive force and a finite remanent voltage at zero current. These results establish orbital currents as a class of quantum state variables that encode both reactive and memory functionalities, opening routes toward intrinsically reconfigurable and energy-efficient electronic systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.15635,
title = {Inductance Meets Memory in the Quantum Magnet Mn3Si2Te6},
author = {Tristan R. Cao and Gabriel Schebel and Arabella Quane and Hengdi Zhao and Yu Zhang and Feng Ye and Longji Cui and Gang Cao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.15635},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
5 figures. Communications Physics (2026)