Pressure-induced ferromagnetism in the topological semimetal EuCd2As2

  • The antiferromagnet and semimetal EuCd2As2 has recently attracted a lot of attention due to a wealth of topological phases arising from the interplay of topology and magnetism. In particular, the presence of a single pair of Weyl points is predicted for a ferromagnetic configuration of Eu spins along the c-axis in EuCd2As2. In the search for such phases, we investigate here the effects of hydrostatic pressure in EuCd2As2. For that, we present specific heat, transport and μSR measurements under hydrostatic pressure up to ∼2.5GPa, combined with {\it ab initio} density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Experimentally, we establish that the ground state of EuCd2As2 changes from in-plane antiferromagnetic (AFMab) to ferromagnetic at a critical pressure of ≈2\,GPa, which is likely characterized by the moments dominantly lying within the ab plane (FMab). The AFMab-FMab transition at such a relatively low pressure is supported by our DFT calculations. Furthermore, our experimental and theoretical results indicate that EuCd2As2 moves closer to the sought-for FMc state (moments ∥ c) with increasing pressure further. We predict that a pressure of ≈\,23\,GPa will stabilize the FMc state, if Eu remains in a 2+ valence state. Thus, our work establishes hydrostatic pressure as a key tuning parameter that (i) allows for a continuous tuning between magnetic ground states in a single sample of EuCd2As2 and (ii) enables the exploration of the interplay between magnetism and topology and thereby motivates a series of future experiments on this magnetic Weyl semimetal.

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Author:Elena Aurelia GatiORCiDGND, Sergey L. Bud’koORCiD, Lin-Lin WangORCiD, Adrian ValadkhaniORCiD, Ritu GuptaORCiD, Brinda KuthanazhiORCiD, Li Xiang, John M. WildeORCiD, Aashish SapkotaORCiD, Zurab GuguchiaORCiD, Rustem KhasanovORCiD, Roser ValentíORCiDGND, Paul C. CanfieldORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-824481
URL:https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.01871v1
DOI:https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2108.01871
ArXiv Id:http://arxiv.org/abs/2108.01871v1
Parent Title (English):arXiv
Publisher:arXiv
Document Type:Preprint
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2021/08/04
Date of first Publication:2021/08/04
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2024/02/19
Issue:2108.01871 Version 1
Edition:Version 1
Page Number:14
HeBIS-PPN:516154788
Institutes:Physik / Physik
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0