Strain-induced switching between noncollinear and collinear spin configuration in magnetic 
Mn5Ge3
 films

Yufang Xie; Ye Yuan; Magdalena Birowska; Chenhui Zhang; Lei Cao; Mao Wang; Joerg Grenzer; Dominik Kriegner; Petr Doležal; Yu-Jia Zeng; Xixiang Zhang; Manfred Helm; Shengqiang Zhou; Slawomir Prucnal

doi:10.1103/physrevb.104.064416

Strain-induced switching between noncollinear and collinear spin configuration in magnetic Mn5Ge3 films

Yufang Xie, Ye Yuan, Magdalena Birowska, Chenhui Zhang, Lei Cao, Mao Wang, Joerg Grenzer, Dominik Kriegner, Petr Doležal, Yu-Jia Zeng, Xixiang Zhang, Manfred Helm, Shengqiang Zhou, Slawomir Prucnal

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Abstract

We report the temperature-dependent magnetic and structural properties of epitaxial Mn5Ge3 thin films grown on Ge substrates. Utilizing density-functional theory (DFT) calculations and various experimental methods, we reveal mechanisms governing the switching between collinear and noncollinear spin configuration in Mn5Ge3. The Mn atoms in Mn5Ge3 occupy two distinct Wyckoff positions with fourfold (Mn1) and sixfold (Mn2) multiplicity. The DFT calculations reveal that below a critical distance of approximately 3.002 Å the coupling between Mn2 atoms is antiferromagnetic (AFM) while ferromagnetic (FM) above that critical distance. The FM coupling between Mn1 atoms is weakly affected by the strain. The observed noncollinear spin configuration is due to the coexistence of AFM and FM coupling at low temperatures. The findings give insight in developing strain-controlled spintronic devices.

Original language	English (US)
Journal	Physical Review B
Volume	104
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.104.064416
State	Published - Aug 9 2021

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-08-13
Acknowledgements: Y.X. (File No. 201706340054) acknowledges the financial support by China Scholarship Council. M.B. is funded by the National Science Centre Grant No. UMO2016/23/D/ST3/03446. Access to computing facilities of PL-Grid Polish Infrastructure for Supporting Computational
Science in the European Research Space and of the Interdisciplinary Center of Modeling (ICM), University of Warsaw is gratefully acknowledged. We made use of computing facilities of TU Dresden ZIH within the project “TransPheMat.” The low-temperature x-ray diffraction was performed in MGML [47], which was supported within the program of Czech Research Infrastructures (Project No. LM2018096). Author Y.X. performed the basic magnetic and transport measurements. Y.Y. and C.Z. performed angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements. P.D. and D.K. performed the temperature-dependent XRD measurements. M.B. performed the DFT calculations and related analyses. J.G. contributed to the discussion about structural analyses. D.K. and X.Z. contributed to the discussion about transport analyses. M.H., S.Z., L.C., Y.-J.Z., and M.W. contributed to the revision of the manuscript. S.P. designed and supervised
the whole project

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10.1103/physrevb.104.064416

https://repository.kaust.edu.sa/bitstream/10754/670592/1/LD18022B.pdf

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@article{e5bde28b994f404f9dc079ac87208bdc,

title = "Strain-induced switching between noncollinear and collinear spin configuration in magnetic Mn5Ge3 films",

abstract = "We report the temperature-dependent magnetic and structural properties of epitaxial Mn5Ge3 thin films grown on Ge substrates. Utilizing density-functional theory (DFT) calculations and various experimental methods, we reveal mechanisms governing the switching between collinear and noncollinear spin configuration in Mn5Ge3. The Mn atoms in Mn5Ge3 occupy two distinct Wyckoff positions with fourfold (Mn1) and sixfold (Mn2) multiplicity. The DFT calculations reveal that below a critical distance of approximately 3.002 {\AA} the coupling between Mn2 atoms is antiferromagnetic (AFM) while ferromagnetic (FM) above that critical distance. The FM coupling between Mn1 atoms is weakly affected by the strain. The observed noncollinear spin configuration is due to the coexistence of AFM and FM coupling at low temperatures. The findings give insight in developing strain-controlled spintronic devices.",

author = "Yufang Xie and Ye Yuan and Magdalena Birowska and Chenhui Zhang and Lei Cao and Mao Wang and Joerg Grenzer and Dominik Kriegner and Petr Dole{\v z}al and Yu-Jia Zeng and Xixiang Zhang and Manfred Helm and Shengqiang Zhou and Slawomir Prucnal",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-08-13 Acknowledgements: Y.X. (File No. 201706340054) acknowledges the financial support by China Scholarship Council. M.B. is funded by the National Science Centre Grant No. UMO2016/23/D/ST3/03446. Access to computing facilities of PL-Grid Polish Infrastructure for Supporting Computational Science in the European Research Space and of the Interdisciplinary Center of Modeling (ICM), University of Warsaw is gratefully acknowledged. We made use of computing facilities of TU Dresden ZIH within the project “TransPheMat.” The low-temperature x-ray diffraction was performed in MGML [47], which was supported within the program of Czech Research Infrastructures (Project No. LM2018096). Author Y.X. performed the basic magnetic and transport measurements. Y.Y. and C.Z. performed angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements. P.D. and D.K. performed the temperature-dependent XRD measurements. M.B. performed the DFT calculations and related analyses. J.G. contributed to the discussion about structural analyses. D.K. and X.Z. contributed to the discussion about transport analyses. M.H., S.Z., L.C., Y.-J.Z., and M.W. contributed to the revision of the manuscript. S.P. designed and supervised the whole project",

year = "2021",

month = aug,

day = "9",

doi = "10.1103/physrevb.104.064416",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "104",

journal = "Physical Review B",

issn = "2469-9950",

publisher = "American Institute of Physics",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Strain-induced switching between noncollinear and collinear spin configuration in magnetic Mn5Ge3 films

AU - Xie, Yufang

AU - Yuan, Ye

AU - Birowska, Magdalena

AU - Zhang, Chenhui

AU - Cao, Lei

AU - Wang, Mao

AU - Grenzer, Joerg

AU - Kriegner, Dominik

AU - Doležal, Petr

AU - Zeng, Yu-Jia

AU - Zhang, Xixiang

AU - Helm, Manfred

AU - Zhou, Shengqiang

AU - Prucnal, Slawomir

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-08-13 Acknowledgements: Y.X. (File No. 201706340054) acknowledges the financial support by China Scholarship Council. M.B. is funded by the National Science Centre Grant No. UMO2016/23/D/ST3/03446. Access to computing facilities of PL-Grid Polish Infrastructure for Supporting Computational Science in the European Research Space and of the Interdisciplinary Center of Modeling (ICM), University of Warsaw is gratefully acknowledged. We made use of computing facilities of TU Dresden ZIH within the project “TransPheMat.” The low-temperature x-ray diffraction was performed in MGML [47], which was supported within the program of Czech Research Infrastructures (Project No. LM2018096). Author Y.X. performed the basic magnetic and transport measurements. Y.Y. and C.Z. performed angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements. P.D. and D.K. performed the temperature-dependent XRD measurements. M.B. performed the DFT calculations and related analyses. J.G. contributed to the discussion about structural analyses. D.K. and X.Z. contributed to the discussion about transport analyses. M.H., S.Z., L.C., Y.-J.Z., and M.W. contributed to the revision of the manuscript. S.P. designed and supervised the whole project

PY - 2021/8/9

Y1 - 2021/8/9

N2 - We report the temperature-dependent magnetic and structural properties of epitaxial Mn5Ge3 thin films grown on Ge substrates. Utilizing density-functional theory (DFT) calculations and various experimental methods, we reveal mechanisms governing the switching between collinear and noncollinear spin configuration in Mn5Ge3. The Mn atoms in Mn5Ge3 occupy two distinct Wyckoff positions with fourfold (Mn1) and sixfold (Mn2) multiplicity. The DFT calculations reveal that below a critical distance of approximately 3.002 Å the coupling between Mn2 atoms is antiferromagnetic (AFM) while ferromagnetic (FM) above that critical distance. The FM coupling between Mn1 atoms is weakly affected by the strain. The observed noncollinear spin configuration is due to the coexistence of AFM and FM coupling at low temperatures. The findings give insight in developing strain-controlled spintronic devices.

AB - We report the temperature-dependent magnetic and structural properties of epitaxial Mn5Ge3 thin films grown on Ge substrates. Utilizing density-functional theory (DFT) calculations and various experimental methods, we reveal mechanisms governing the switching between collinear and noncollinear spin configuration in Mn5Ge3. The Mn atoms in Mn5Ge3 occupy two distinct Wyckoff positions with fourfold (Mn1) and sixfold (Mn2) multiplicity. The DFT calculations reveal that below a critical distance of approximately 3.002 Å the coupling between Mn2 atoms is antiferromagnetic (AFM) while ferromagnetic (FM) above that critical distance. The FM coupling between Mn1 atoms is weakly affected by the strain. The observed noncollinear spin configuration is due to the coexistence of AFM and FM coupling at low temperatures. The findings give insight in developing strain-controlled spintronic devices.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/670592

UR - https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.064416

U2 - 10.1103/physrevb.104.064416

DO - 10.1103/physrevb.104.064416

M3 - Article

SN - 2469-9950

VL - 104

JO - Physical Review B

JF - Physical Review B

IS - 6

ER -

Strain-induced switching between noncollinear and collinear spin configuration in magnetic Mn5Ge3 films

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