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Glassy magnetic ground state in layered compound MnSb2Te4

层状化合物MnSb2Te4中的玻璃磁基态

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Abstract

As a sister compound of MnBi2Te4, the high-quality MnSb2Te4 single crystals are grown via solid-state reaction where prolonged annealing and narrow temperature window play critical roles on account of its thermal metastability. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) analysis on MnSb2Te4 illustrates a crystal model that is isostructural to MnBi2Te4, consisting of Te-Sb-Te-Mn-Te-Sb-Te septuple layers (SLs) stacking in an ABC sequence. However, MnSb2Te4 reveals a more pronounced cation intermixing in comparison with MnBi2Te4, comprising 28.9(7)% Sb antisite defects on the Mn (3a) site and 19.3(6)% Mn antisite defects on the Sb (6c) site, which may give rise to novel magnetic properties in emerging layered MnBi2Te4-family materials. Unlike the antiferromagnetic (AFM) nature in MnBi2Te4, MnSb2Te4 exhibits a glassy magnetic ground state below 24 K and can be easily tuned to a ferromagnetic state under a weak applied magnetic field. Its magnetic hysteresis, anisotropy, and relaxation process are investigated in detail via static and dynamic magnetization measurements. Moreover, anomalous Hall effect as a p-type conductor is demonstrated with transport measurements. This work grants MnSb2Te4 a possible access to the future exploration of exotic quantum physics by removing the odd/even layer number restraint in realizing quantum transport phenomena in intrinsic AFM MnBi2Te4-family materials, as a result of the crossover between its magnetism and potential topology arising from the Sb-Te layer.

摘要

作为MnBi2Te4的姊妹化合物, 高质量的MnSb2Te4单晶可以通过固态反应法合成; 而由于MnSb2Te4的热亚稳性, 长时间的退火和狭窄 的退火温区是合成的关键. 单晶X射线衍射分析结果说明MnSb2Te4具有与MnBi2Te4类似的晶体结构, 由七个原子层的Te-Sb-Te-Mn-Te-Sb-Te的层状结构单元沿面外方向以ABC顺序堆叠而成. 但是, 与MnBi2Te4相比, MnSb2Te4显示出更为严重的阳离子互占位, 表现为Mn (3a)位上的28.9(7)%Sb反位缺陷和Sb (6c)位上的19.3(6)%的Mn反位缺陷, 这种原子分布的变化能够为MnBi2Te4家族材料带来新的磁学特性. 与MnBi2Te4的反铁磁性质不同, MnSb2Te4在低于24 K的温度下展现出玻璃磁基态, 并且在弱的外加磁场下很容易被诱导至铁磁态. 通过静态和动态磁学测量, 我们详细研究了MnSb2Te4 的磁滞行为、磁各向异性和磁弛豫过程. 此外, 通过输运测量, 我们证明了合成的MnSb2Te4晶体是p型导体, 并且能够呈现出反常霍尔效应. MnSb2Te4的不同于MnBi2Te4的磁学特性与Sb-Te层产生的潜在拓扑特性相互作用, 有望突破反铁磁MnBi2Te4家族材料中实现量子输运现象的奇数或者偶数的层数限制,为新奇的量子物理学的探索带来新的可能.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the Basic Science Center Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51788104), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2018YFA0307100), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51991340 and 21975140). This work at Rutgers was supported by the Beckman Young Investigator award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Hao Li  (李昊)

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yang Wu  (吴扬)

  3. State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics and Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yaoxin Li  (李耀鑫), Jinsong Zhang  (张金松) & Shoushan Fan  (范守善)

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yukun Lian  (连宇坤) & Ling Chen  (陈玲)

  5. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, 08854, USA

    Weiwei Xie  (谢韦伟)

  6. Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Hao Li  (李昊), Yang Wu  (吴扬) & Shoushan Fan  (范守善)

  7. Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jinsong Zhang  (张金松)

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  1. Hao Li  (李昊)
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Contributions

Author contributions Li H and Wu Y conceived the idea and designed the experiments. Li H performed the synthesis, characterization and magnetic measurement. Li Y and Zhang J carried out the transport measurements. Lian Y, Chen L and Xie W contributes to the SCXRD measurements and structure refinement. The paper was written by Li H and Wu Y. Fan S supervised the study. All authors helped in the revision of the paper and contributed to the general discussion.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yang Wu  (吴扬).

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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary information Supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Hao Li received her BSc from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2016. She is now a doctoral candidate of materials science and engineering at Tsinghua University. Her research includes exploratory synthesis and physical properties of low-dimensional topological materials.

Yang Wu received his BSc from Tsinghua University in 2002 and PhD from Arizona State University in 2011. He is an associate professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center of Tsinghua University. His research interests focus on the synthesis of energy storage materials and topological quantum materials.

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Li, H., Li, Y., Lian, Y. et al. Glassy magnetic ground state in layered compound MnSb2Te4. Sci. China Mater. 65, 477–485 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-021-1738-9

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