No Arabic abstract
For the innovation of spintronic technologies, Dirac materials, in which the low-energy excitation is described as relativistic Dirac fermions, are one of the most promising systems, because of the fascinating magnetotransport associated with the extremely high mobility. To incorporate Dirac fermions into spintronic applications, their quantum transport phenomena are desired to be manipulated to a large extent by magnetic order in a solid. We here report a bulk half-integer quantum Hall effect in a layered antiferromagnet EuMnBi$_2$, in which field-controllable Eu magnetic order significantly suppresses the interlayer coupling between the Bi layers with Dirac fermions. In addition to the high mobility more than 10,000 cm$^2$/Vs, Landau level splittings presumably due to the lifting of spin and valley degeneracy are noticeable even in a bulk magnet. These results will pave a route to the engineering of magnetically functionalized Dirac materials.
Unconventional features of relativistic Dirac/Weyl quasi-particles in topological materials are most evidently manifested in the 2D quantum Hall effect (QHE), whose variety is further enriched by their spin and/or valley polarization. Although its extension to three dimensions has been long-sought and inspired theoretical proposals, material candidates have been lacking. Here we have discovered valley-contrasting spin-polarized Dirac fermions in a multilayer form in bulk antiferromagnet BaMnSb$_2$, where the out-of-plane Zeeman-type spin splitting is induced by the in-plane inversion symmetry breaking and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in the distorted Sb square net. Furthermore, we have observed well-defined quantized Hall plateaus together with vanishing interlayer conductivity at low temperatures as a hallmark of the half-integer QHE in a bulk form. The Hall conductance of each layer is found to be nearly quantized to $2(N+1/2)e^2/h$ with $N$ being the Landau index, which is consistent with two spin-polarized Dirac valleys protected by the strong spin-valley coupling.
We report spin-split Landau levels of quasi-two-dimensional Dirac fermions in a layered antiferromagnet EuMnBi$_2$, as revealed by interlayer resistivity measurements in a tilted magnetic field up to $sim$35 T. The amplitude of Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation in interlayer resistivity is strongly modulated by changing the tilt angle of the field, i.e., the Zeeman-to-cyclotron energy ratio. The effective $g$ factor estimated from the tilt angle, where the SdH oscillation exhibits a phase inversion, differs by approximately 50% between two antiferromagnetic phases. This observation signifies a marked impact of the magnetic order of Eu sublattice on the Dirac-like band structure. The origin may be sought in strong exchange coupling with the local Eu moments, as verified by the first-principles calculation.
Relativistic massless Dirac fermions can be probed with high-energy physics experiments, but appear also as low-energy quasi-particle excitations in electronic band structures. In condensed matter systems, their massless nature can be protected by crystal symmetries. Classification of such symmetry-protected relativistic band degeneracies has been fruitful, although many of the predicted quasi-particles still await their experimental discovery. Here we reveal, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, the existence of two-dimensional type-II Dirac fermions in the high-temperature superconductor La$_{1.77}$Sr$_{0.23}$CuO$_4$. The Dirac point, constituting the crossing of $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{z^2}$ bands, is found approximately one electronvolt below the Fermi level ($E_mathrm{F}$) and is protected by mirror symmetry. If spin-orbit coupling is considered, the Dirac point degeneracy is lifted and the bands acquire a topologically non-trivial character. In certain nickelate systems, band structure calculations suggest that the same type-II Dirac fermions can be realised near $E_mathrm{F}$.
We report the magnetization ($chi$, $M$), specific heat ($C_{text{P}}$), and neutron powder diffraction results on a quasi-two-dimensional $S$ = 2 square lattice antiferromagnet Ba$_2$FeSi$_2$O$_7$ consisting of FeO$_4$ tetragons with a large compressive distortion (27%). Despite of the quasi-two-dimensional lattice structure, both $chi$ and $C_{text{P}}$ present three dimensional magnetic long-range order below the Neel temperature $T_{text{N}}$ = 5.2 K. Neutron diffraction data shows a collinear $Q_{m}$ = (1,0,0.5) antiferromagnetic (AFM) structure with the in-plane ordered magnetic moment suppressed by 26% below $T_{text{N}}$. Both the AFM structure and the suppressed moments are well explained by the Monte Carlo simulation with a large single-ion ab-plane anisotropy $D$ = 1.4 meV and a rather small in-plane Heisenberg exchange $J_{text{intra}}$ = 0.15 meV. The characteristic two dimensional spin fluctuations can be recognized in the magnetic entropy release and diffuse scattering above $T_{text{N}}$. This new quasi-2D magnetic system also displays unusual non-monotonic dependence of the $T_{text{N}}$ as a function of magnetic field $H$.
At sufficiently low temperatures, condensed-matter systems tend to develop order. An exception are quantum spin-liquids, where fluctuations prevent a transition to an ordered state down to the lowest temperatures. While such states are possibly realized in two-dimensional organic compounds, they have remained elusive in experimentally relevant microscopic two-dimensional models. Here, we show by means of large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations of correlated fermions on the honeycomb lattice, a structure realized in graphene, that a quantum spin-liquid emerges between the state described by massless Dirac fermions and an antiferromagnetically ordered Mott insulator. This unexpected quantum-disordered state is found to be a short-range resonating valence bond liquid, akin to the one proposed for high temperature superconductors. Therefore, the possibility of unconventional superconductivity through doping arises. We foresee its realization with ultra-cold atoms or with honeycomb lattices made with group IV elements.