Non-fermi-liquid behavior of electron-spin fluctuations in an elemental paramagnet

CoTe2 : A Quantum Critical Dirac Metal with Strong Spin Fluctuations

Quantum critical points separating weak ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases trigger many novel phenomena. Dynamical spin fluctuations not only suppress the long-range order, but can also lead to unusual transport and even superconductivity. Combining quantum criticality with topological electronic properties presents a rare and unique opportunity. Here, by means of ab initio calculations and magnetic, thermal, and transport measurements, it is shown that the orthorhombic CoTe₂ is close to ferromagnetism, which appears suppressed by spin fluctuations. Calculations and transport measurements reveal nodal Dirac lines, making it a rare combination of proximity to quantum criticality and Dirac topology.

Magnetic Skyrmion Materials

Skyrmion, a concept originally proposed in particle physics half a century ago, can now find the most fertile field for its applicability, that is, the magnetic skyrmion realized in helimagnetic materials. The spin swirling vortex-like texture of the magnetic skyrmion can define the particle nature by topology; that is, all the constituent spin moments within the two-dimensional sheet wrap the sphere just one time. Such a topological nature of the magnetic skyrmion can lead to extraordinary metastability via topological protection and the driven motion with low electric-current excitation, which may promise future application to spintronics. The skyrmions in the magnetic materials frequently show up as the crystal lattice form, e.g., hexagonal lattice, but sometimes as isolated or independent particles. These skyrmions in magnets were initially found in acentric magnets, such as chiral, polar, and bilayered magnets endowed with antisymmetric spin exchange interaction, while the skyrmion host materials have been explored in a broader family of compounds including centrosymmetric magnets. This review describes the materials science and materials chemistry of magnetic skyrmions using the classification scheme of the skyrmion forming microscopic mechanisms. The emergent phenomena and functions mediated by skyrmions are described, including the generation of emergent magnetic and electric field by statics and dynamics of skrymions and the inherent magnetoelectric effect. The other important magnetic topological defects in two or three dimensions, such as biskyrmions, antiskyrmions, merons, and hedgehogs, are also reviewed in light of their interplay with the skyrmions.

Disordered skyrmion phase stabilized by magnetic frustration in a chiral magnet

Magnetic skyrmions are vortex-like topological spin textures often observed to form a triangular-lattice skyrmion crystal in structurally chiral magnets with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Recently, β-Mn structure-type Co-Zn-Mn alloys were identified as a new class of chiral magnet to host such skyrmion crystal phases, while β-Mn itself is known as hosting an elemental geometrically frustrated spin liquid. We report the intermediate composition system Co₇Zn₇Mn₆ to be a unique host of two disconnected, thermal-equilibrium topological skyrmion phases; one is a conventional skyrmion crystal phase stabilized by thermal fluctuations and restricted to exist just below the magnetic transition temperature T_c, and the other is a novel three-dimensionally disordered skyrmion phase that is stable well below T_c. The stability of this new disordered skyrmion phase is due to a cooperative interplay between the chiral magnetism with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the frustrated magnetism inherent to β-Mn.

Emergent frustration in co-doped β-Mn

We investigate low-temperature spin correlations in the metallic frustrated magnet β-Mn1-xCox. Single-crystal polarized-neutron scattering experiments reveal the persistence of highly structured magnetic diffuse scattering and the absence of periodic magnetic order to T=0.05  K. We employ reverse Monte Carlo refinements and mean-field theory calculations to construct an effective Hamiltonian which accounts for the magnetic scattering. The interactions we identify describe an emergent spin structure which mimics the triangular lattice antiferromagnet, one of the canonical models of frustrated magnetism.

Ti8(Ti(x)Mn(1-x))6Mn39 ('TiMn(~4)'): a metallic spin fluctuation system

The crystal structure of Ti(8)(Ti(x)Mn(1-x))(6)Mn(39), x = 0.187, was obtained from x-ray single-crystal diffraction data, confirming it to have rhombohedral symmetry (space group [Formula: see text]; a(hex) = 1.100 70(2) nm, c(hex) = 1.944 11(4) nm; R(F) = 0.0293) and isotypism with the prototype Mo(0.38)Cr(0.16)Co(0.46) (the so-called R-phase). On the basis of electron probe micro-analyser results and structure determination, the homogeneity region of the phase TiMn(~4) was determined for temperatures in the range 800 °C < T < 1200 °C and is in between 16.0 at.% Ti and 20 at.% Ti. Various physical properties, determined in the temperature range from ~2 K to room temperature, characterize the compound with composition TiMn(4.26) as a metallic spin fluctuation system, evidenced from a T(3)lnT dependence of the heat capacity in combination with large values of the electronic Sommerfeld constant of the order of 140 mJ mol(-1) K(-2). The occurrence of a small anomaly in the heat capacity and magnetization data around 10 K is attributed to a scenario involving spin freezing phenomena, since a fraction of the order of 10% of all Mn-Mn distances within the unit cell are above a critical distance, where Mn atoms carry a spontaneous magnetic moment.

Magnetic short-range order in β-Mn(1-x)Co(x)

We present a study of the magnetic ground state properties of β-Mn metal alloyed with Co, using neutron polarization analysis of the diffuse neutron scattering cross-section. We analyse the magnetic structure obtained using a reverse Monte Carlo procedure to extract the Mn-Mn spin correlations. The addition of Co leads to a static disordered magnetic structure with medium-range correlations. Our analysis of the spin correlations indicates that both 8c and 12d non-equivalent lattice sites present in the β-Mn structure contribute to the magnetic ground state, where previously it was thought that the 8c site was non-magnetic.

Vibronic and magnetic excitations in the spin-orbital liquid state of FeSc2S4

Inelastic neutron scattering results on the spin-orbital liquid in FeSc2S4 are presented. This sulfospinel reveals strong geometric frustration in the spin and in the orbital sector. In the present experiments the orbital liquid is evidenced by a clear spectroscopic signature of a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect with a vibronic splitting 3Gamma approximately 2 meV in agreement with theoretical estimates. The excitations of the spin liquid reveal strong dispersion and can be characterized as cooperative spin excitations in a supercooled paramagnet with a spin gap of Delta approximately 0.2 meV.