APS Logo

Magnetostructural instability in Weyl ferromagnet Mn<sub>3</sub>ZnC

ORAL

Abstract

We present first-principles calculations suggesting that the ferromagnetic phase of cubic antiperovskite Mn3ZnC is a nodal line Weyl semimetal. Electronic structure features that are the hallmark of this nodal line state—a large density of linear band crossing near the Fermi level—can also be interpreted as signatures of structural and magnetic instability. In fact, it is known that Mn3ZnC transitions upon cooling from a paramagnetic to a cubic ferromagnetic state under ambient conditions and then further into a non-collinear tetragonal phase at a temperature between 250 K and 200 K. The existence of Weyl nodes and their destruction via structural and antiferromagnetic ordering is likely relevant to a range of magnetostructurally coupled materials.

Presenters

  • Samuel Teicher

    Materials Research Laboratory and Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara

Authors

  • Samuel Teicher

    Materials Research Laboratory and Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Ida K Svenningsson

    Department of Applied Physics, Chalmers Institute of Technology

  • Leslie Schoop

    Princeton University, Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton

  • Ram Seshadri

    University of California, Santa Barbara, Materials Department and Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Materials Research Laboratory and Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara