Weyl-mediated helical magnetism in NdAlSi

Jonathan Gaudet^{1

2

3}, Hung-Yu Yang⁴, Santu Baidya⁵, Baozhu Lu⁶, Guangyong Xu⁷, Yang Zhao^{7

8}, Jose A Rodriguez-Rivera^{7

8}, Christina M Hoffmann⁹, David E Graf¹⁰, Darius H Torchinsky⁶, Predrag Nikolić^{11

12}, David Vanderbilt⁵, Fazel Tafti⁴, Collin L Broholm^{11

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Matter, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. Jonathan.Gaudet@nist.gov.
² NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. Jonathan.Gaudet@nist.gov.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Jonathan.Gaudet@nist.gov.
⁴ Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁷ NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
⁹ Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
¹⁰ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Matter, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹² Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.

PMID: 34413490
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01062-8

Weyl-mediated helical magnetism in NdAlSi

Jonathan Gaudet et al. Nat Mater. 2021 Dec.

. 2021 Dec;20(12):1650-1656.

doi: 10.1038/s41563-021-01062-8. Epub 2021 Aug 19.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Matter, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. Jonathan.Gaudet@nist.gov.
² NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. Jonathan.Gaudet@nist.gov.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Jonathan.Gaudet@nist.gov.
⁴ Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁷ NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
⁹ Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
¹⁰ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Matter, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹² Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.

PMID: 34413490
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01062-8

Abstract

Emergent relativistic quasiparticles in Weyl semimetals are the source of exotic electronic properties such as surface Fermi arcs, the anomalous Hall effect and negative magnetoresistance, all observed in real materials. Whereas these phenomena highlight the effect of Weyl fermions on the electronic transport properties, less is known about what collective phenomena they may support. Here, we report a Weyl semimetal, NdAlSi, that offers an example. Using neutron diffraction, we found a long-wavelength helical magnetic order in NdAlSi, the periodicity of which is linked to the nesting vector between two topologically non-trivial Fermi pockets, which we characterize using density functional theory and quantum oscillation measurements. We further show the chiral transverse component of the spin structure is promoted by bond-oriented Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions associated with Weyl exchange processes. Our work provides a rare example of Weyl fermions driving collective magnetism.

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Comment in

Weyl fermions promote collective magnetism.
Hirschberger M, Tokura Y. Hirschberger M, et al. Nat Mater. 2021 Dec;20(12):1592-1593. doi: 10.1038/s41563-021-01133-w. Nat Mater. 2021. PMID: 34815565 No abstract available.

References

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Weyl-mediated helical magnetism in NdAlSi

Affiliations

Weyl-mediated helical magnetism in NdAlSi

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

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References

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