arXiv subjects

Lisa Michez

Publications and source records attributed to Lisa Michez.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Direct demonstration of time-reversal-symmetry-breaking spin injection from a compensated magnet

The injection, propagation and detection of spin currents are essential physical processes in spintronics. So far, the separation of charge and spin currents was facilitated by the electrical spin injection from a ferromagnet (FM) or the injection by a relativistic spin Hall effect. The devices employed are lateral spin valves comprising spatially separated injection and detection electrodes, connected by a spin-propagation channel. The time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking FM spin injection is realized in a geometry with an electrical bias applied between the injection electrode and the channel and is modelled by a conserved spin-polarized drift current. In contrast, the spin injection by the T-symmetric relativistic spin Hall mechanism is driven by an electrical bias applied across the injection electrode alone, and is modelled by a non-conserved spin current transverse to the applied bias. In this work, we use a lateral spin valve with a Mn5Si3 injection electrode to directly demonstrate a TRS-breaking spin injection from a compensated magnet with a vanishing net magnetization. Specifically, the TRS-breaking is demonstrated by the fact that switching between time-reversed states of the compensated magnet changes the detected spin signal. Moreover, the TRS-breaking nature of the spin injection is observed in both experimental geometries with the different electrical biasing, while using the same detection electrode. We show that this unconventional spin-injection is consistent with different magnitudes and propagation angles of electrical currents in the spin-up and spin-down channel in a d-wave altermagnet. Here our symmetry analysis and first-principles calculations are based on the compensated collinear altermagnetic order which has provided a comprehensive microscopic interpretation of earlier structural, magnetic, and anomalous Hall and Nernst measurements in Mn5Si3 thin films.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Magnetic aftereffect and Barkhausen effect in thin films of the altermagnetic candidate Mn5Si3

Altermagnetism as a third distinct type of collinear magnetic ordering lately attracts vivid attention. We here study the Hall effect response of micron-scale Hall bars patterned into Mn5Si3 thin films, an altermagnet candidate material. Recording transport data as a function of time, at fixed magnetic field magnitude, we observe a time-dependent relaxation of the Hall voltage qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the magnetic viscosity response well established in ferromagnetic films. In addition, the Hall voltage time traces feature clear unilateral steps, which we interpret as Barkhausen steps, i.e., as experimental evidence for abrupt reorientations of magnetic (Hall vector) domains in the altermagnetic candidate material. A quantitative analysis yields a Barkhausen length of around 18nm in the Hall bar devices with the smallest width of 100 nm.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Altermagnetic variants in thin films of Mn5Si3

The altermagnet candidate Mn5Si3 has attracted wide attention in the context of non-relativistic spin physics, due to its composition of light elements. However, the presumed structure of the altermagnetic phase had yet to be demonstrated. In this study, we demonstrate a hallmark of altermagnetism in Mn5Si3 thin films, namely the three options, or variants, for the checkerboard distribution of the magnetic Mn atoms. The magnetic symmetries were altered by field-rotation of the N\'eel vector along relevant crystal directions, resulting in anomalous Hall effect anisotropy. The experimental results in nanoscale devices were corroborated by a theoretical model involving atomic site dependent anisotropy and bulk Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction for a single variant.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Detecting slow magnetization relaxation via magnetotransport measurements based on the current-reversal method

Slow magnetization relaxation processes are an important time-dependent property of many magnetic materials. We show that magnetotransport measurements based on a well-established current-reversal method can be utilized to implement a simple and robust screening scheme for such relaxation processes. We demonstrate our approach considering the anomalous Hall effect in a Pt/Co/AlOx trilayer model system, and then explore relaxation in {\tau} -MnAl films. Compared to magnetotransport experiments based on ac lock-in techniques, we find that the dc current-reversal method is particulary sensitive to relaxation processes with relaxation time scales on the order of seconds, comparable to the current-reversal measurement time scales.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Epitaxial growth and magnetic properties of Mn5(SixGe1-x)3 thin films

Structural and magnetic properties of Mn5(SixGe1-x)3 thin films were investigated. Ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 and anti-ferromagnetic Mn5Si3 thin films have been synthesized and characterized as these compounds exhibit interesting features for the development of spintronics. Here, Mn5(SixGe1-x)3 thin films were grown on Ge(111) substrates by co-deposition using molecular beam epitaxy. Crystalline thin films can be produced with controlled Si concentrations ranging from 0 to 1. The thin films were relaxed by dislocations at the interface with the substrate. A lattice parameter variation was observed as the Si content increased, which is comparable to previous works done in bulk. Reflection highenergy electron diffraction diagrams and X-ray diffraction profiles showed that lattice parameters a and c are shrinking and that the surface roughness and crystallinity degrade as the Si amount increases. Magnetometric measurements revealed a ferromagnetic behavior for all Si concentrations. The measured average ferromagnetic moment per manganese atom decreased from 2.33 to 0.05 {\mu}B/Mn atom. No ferro to anti-ferromagnetic transition was observed contrary to the bulk Mn5(SixGe1-x)3 compound.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Observation of the anomalous Nernst effect in altermagnetic candidate Mn5Si3

The anomalous Nernst effect generates transverse voltage to the applied thermal gradient in magnetically ordered systems. The effect was previously considered excluded in compensated magnetic materials with collinear ordering. However, in the recently identified class of compensated magnetic materials, dubbed altermagnets, time-reversal symmetry breaking in the electronic band structure makes the presence of the anomalous Nernst effect possible despite the collinear spin arrangement. In this work, we investigate epitaxial Mn5Si3 thin films known to be an altermagnetic candidate. We show that the material manifests a sizable anomalous Nernst coefficient despite the small net magnetization of the films. The measured magnitudes of the anomalous Nernst coefficient reach a scale of microVolts per Kelvin. We support our magneto-thermoelectric measurements by density-functional theory calculations of the material's spin-split electronic structure, which allows for the finite Berry curvature in the reciprocal space. Furthermore, we present our calculations of the intrinsic Berry-curvature Nernst conductivity, which agree with our experimental observations.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Anisotropy of the anomalous Hall effect in the altermagnet candidate Mn$_5$Si$_3$ films

Altermagnets are compensated magnets belonging to spin symmetry groups that allow alternating spin polarizations both in the coordinate space of the crystal and in the momentum space of the electronic structure. In these materials the anisotropic local crystal environment of the different sublattices lowers the symmetry of the system so that the opposite-spin sublattices are connected only by rotations, which results in an unconventional spin-polarized band structure in the momentum space. This low symmetry of the crystal structure is expected to be reflected in the anisotropy of the anomalous Hall effect. In this work, we study the anisotropy of the anomalous Hall effect in epitaxial thin films of Mn$_5$Si$_3$, an altermagnetic candidate material. We first demonstrate a change in the relative N\'eel vector orientation when rotating the external field orientation through systematic changes in both the anomalous Hall effect and the anisotropic longitudinal magnetoresistance. We then show that the anomalous Hall effect in this material is anisotropic with the N\'eel vector orientation relative to the crystal structure and that this anisotropy requires high crystal quality and unlikely correlates with the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Our results provide further systematic support to the case for considering epitaxial thin films of Mn$_5$Si$_3$ as an altermagnetic candidate material.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Even-in-magnetic field part of transverse resistivity as a probe of magnetic transitions

The component of the resistivity tensor $\rho_{ij}$ corresponding to voltage transverse to both an applied current and a magnetic field can be separated into odd and even parts with respect to the applied magnetic field. The former contains information, for example, about the ordinary or anomalous Hall effect. The latter is often ascribed to experimental artefacts and ignored. Here, we show that upon suppressing these artefacts in carefully controlled experiments, useful information remains. We first investigate the well-explored ferromagnet CoFeB, where the even part of $\rho_{yx}$ contains a contribution from the anisotropic magnetoresistance, which we confirm by Stoner--Wohlfarth modelling. We then apply our approach to magnetotransport measurements of $\rm Mn_5Si_3$ thin films, which undergo a transition from non-collinear to an altermagnetic collinear state. In this material, the even part of the transverse signal is sizable only in the low-spin-symmetry phase below $\approx 80$~K. Transverse resistivity measurements thus offer a simple and readily available probe of magnetic order transitions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Macroscopic time reversal symmetry breaking by staggered spin-momentum interaction

Time-reversal (T) symmetry breaking is a fundamental physics concept underpinning a broad science and technology area, including topological magnets, axion physics, dissipationless Hall currents, or spintronic memories. A best known conventional model of macroscopic T-symmetry breaking is a ferromagnetic order of itinerant Bloch electrons with an isotropic spin interaction in momentum space. Anisotropic electron interactions, on the other hand, have been a domain of correlated quantum phases, such as the T-invariant nematics or unconventional superconductors. Here we report discovery of a broken-T phase of itinerant Bloch electrons with an unconventional anisotropic spin-momentum interaction, whose staggered nature leads to the formation of two ferromagnetic-like valleys in the momentum space with opposite spin splittings. We describe qualitatively the effect by deriving a non-relativistic single-particle Hamiltonian model. Next, we identify the unconventional staggered spin-momentum interaction by first-principles electronic structure calculations in a four-sublattice antiferromagnet Mn5Si3 with a collinear checkerboard magnetic order. We show that the staggered spin-momentum interaction is set by nonrelativistic spin-symmetries which were previously omitted in relativistic physics classifications of spin interactions and topological quasiparticles. Our measurements of a spontaneous Hall effect in epilayers of antiferromagnetic Mn5Si3 with vanishing magnetization are consistent with our theory predictions. Bloch electrons with the unconventional staggered spin interaction, compatible with abundant low atomic-number materials, strong spin-coherence, and collinear antiferromagnetic order open unparalleled possibilities for realizing T-symmetry broken spin and topological quantum phases.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗