Polarized neutron scattering study of the centrosymmetric skyrmion host material ${\mathrm{Gd}}_{2}{\mathrm{PdSi}}_{3}$

Polarized neutron scattering study of the centrosymmetric skyrmion host material ${Gd}_{2} {PdSi}_{3}$

Jiwon Ju, Hiraku Saito, Takashi Kurumaji, Max Hirschberger, Akiko Kikkawa, Yasujiro Taguchi, Taka-hisa Arima, Yoshinori Tokura, and Taro Nakajima

Phys. Rev. B 107, 024405 – Published 6 January 2023

Abstract

We investigated magnetic structures of the centrosymmetric skyrmion material ${Gd}_{2} {PdSi}_{3}$ by means of polarized neutron scattering near zero field with an isotope- ${}^{160}{Gd}$ -enriched single crystal. In a previous study, magnetic structures in ${Gd}_{2} {PdSi}_{3}$ at low temperatures were studied by resonant x-ray scattering measurements [T. Kurumaji et al., Science 365, 914 (2019)]. The present polarized neutron results confirm that the magnetic structure in zero field has elliptic screw-type magnetic modulation with a propagation vector of $(q, 0, 0)$ with $q \sim 0.14$ and its equivalents. As the temperature increases, the system undergoes a magnetic phase transition while keeping the incommensurate $q$ -vector of $(q, 0, 0)$ . We found that the thermally induced phase has sinusoidal magnetic modulations with magnetic moments perpendicular both to the $c$ axis and to the $q$ -vector. We also investigate the spin-helicity degree of freedom in the ground state by polarized neutrons, revealing that the system contains equal fractions of the left-handed and right-handed screw-type orders as expected from the centrosymmetric crystal structure.

Received 17 August 2022
Revised 28 November 2022
Accepted 19 December 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.107.024405

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Magnetic order Magnetism

Neutron scattering

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Jiwon Ju¹, Hiraku Saito¹, Takashi Kurumaji ², Max Hirschberger ^3,4, Akiko Kikkawa³, Yasujiro Taguchi ³, Taka-hisa Arima ^2,3, Yoshinori Tokura^3,4,5, and Taro Nakajima ^1,3,*

¹The Institute for Solid State Physics, the University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan
²Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8561, Japan
³RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Saitama 351-0198, Japan
⁴Department of Applied Physics and Quantum Phase Electronics Center (QPEC), University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
⁵Tokyo College, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

^*taro.nakajima@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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Vol. 107, Iss. 2 — 1 January 2023

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Figure 1
(a) Schematic illustration showing the experimental setup and the definitions of the Cartesian coordinates $x y z$ . (b) The definition of unit vectors to describe the spin components.
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Figure 2
(a), (b) Scattering profiles of the magnetic Bragg reflection at $(0, q, 0)$ measured in the (a) $P_{x x}$ and (b) $P_{z z}$ configurations at 2.5 K in zero field. (c) Schematic showing the directions of $κ$ and $q$ -vector when measuring the reflection at $(0, q, 0)$ . (d) Scattering profiles of the reflection at $(- 1 + q, 2, 0)$ measured in the $P_{z z}$ configuration at 2.5 K. (e) Schematic showing the directions of $κ$ and $q$ -vector for the reflection $(- 1 + q, 2, 0)$ . Green circles and gray squares denote positions of the magnetic and nuclear reflections, respectively.
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Figure 3
(a), (b) Temperature dependence of (a) the integrated intensities of NSF and SF scatterings measured at $(0, q, 0)$ and (b) the ellipticity of the screw-type magnetic order. Solid lines in (a) are guides to the eyes. The data were collected in the $P_{z z}$ configuration. Inset of (b) shows the scattering profile measured at 21 K. (c) Schematic illustration of the anharmonic rotation of spins in the ground state $(T < T_{N 2})$ . The directions of the magnetic moments are projected onto the plane perpendicular to the $q$ -vector. Dark green arrows show the spin directions taking into account the ellipticity of 0.7. The numbers correspond to relative positions of the spins along the $q$ -vector. Light green arrows show the spin directions without ellipticity.
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Figure 4
Scattering profiles of magnetic Bragg reflections at $(1 - q, 0, 0)$ and $(1 + q, 0, 0)$ measured at 2.5 K. The spectrometer was operated in the half-polarized mode. The direction of the incident neutron polarization was set to be parallel or antiparallel to the scattering vector $κ$ . The data labeled “ $I_{OFF}$ ” and “ $I_{ON}$ ” were measured when the spin flipper was off and on, and correspond to the parallel and antiparallel cases, respectively.
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Figure 5
Temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility of (a) a single crystal ${Gd}_{2} {PdSi}_{3}$ with natural abundance of isotopes (cited from the supplementary material of Ref. [1]) and (b) the isotope-enriched sample. In (a), magnetic susceptibilities for both $H ∥ a$ and $H ∥ c$ are plotted to show the temperature dependence of the anisotropy.
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Figure 6
Temperature dependence of the magnetic modulation wave number $q$ of ${Gd}_{2} {PdSi}_{3}$ with natural abundance of isotopes measured by the previous resonant x-ray measurements (cited from the Supplementary Material of Ref. [1]) and that of the isotope-enriched sample measured by the present neutron scattering measurements.
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Physical Review B

covering condensed matter and materials physics

Polarized neutron scattering study of the centrosymmetric skyrmion host material ${Gd}_{2} {PdSi}_{3}$

Jiwon Ju, Hiraku Saito, Takashi Kurumaji, Max Hirschberger, Akiko Kikkawa, Yasujiro Taguchi, Taka-hisa Arima, Yoshinori Tokura, and Taro Nakajima

Phys. Rev. B 107, 024405 – Published 6 January 2023

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Physical Review B

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Polarized neutron scattering study of the centrosymmetric skyrmion host material Gd2PdSi3

Jiwon Ju, Hiraku Saito, Takashi Kurumaji, Max Hirschberger, Akiko Kikkawa, Yasujiro Taguchi, Taka-hisa Arima, Yoshinori Tokura, and Taro Nakajima

Phys. Rev. B 107, 024405 – Published 6 January 2023

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Polarized neutron scattering study of the centrosymmetric skyrmion host material ${Gd}_{2} {PdSi}_{3}$