Control of chiral orbital currents in a colossal magnetoresistance material

Yu Zhang; Yifei Ni; Hengdi Zhao; Sami Hakani; Feng Ye; Lance DeLong; Itamar Kimchi; Gang Cao

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05262-3

Control of chiral orbital currents in a colossal magnetoresistance material

Yu Zhang, Yifei Ni, Hengdi Zhao, Sami Hakani, Feng Ye, Lance DeLong, Itamar Kimchi, Gang Cao

Single Crystal Diffraction

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28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) is an extraordinary enhancement of the electrical conductivity in the presence of a magnetic field. It is conventionally associated with a field-induced spin polarization that drastically reduces spin scattering and electric resistance. Ferrimagnetic Mn₃Si₂Te₆ is an intriguing exception to this rule: it exhibits a seven-order-of-magnitude reduction in ab plane resistivity that occurs only when a magnetic polarization is avoided^1,2. Here, we report an exotic quantum state that is driven by ab plane chiral orbital currents (COC) flowing along edges of MnTe₆ octahedra. The c axis orbital moments of ab plane COC couple to the ferrimagnetic Mn spins to drastically increase the ab plane conductivity (CMR) when an external magnetic field is aligned along the magnetic hard c axis. Consequently, COC-driven CMR is highly susceptible to small direct currents exceeding a critical threshold, and can induce a time-dependent, bistable switching that mimics a first-order ‘melting transition’ that is a hallmark of the COC state. The demonstrated current-control of COC-enabled CMR offers a new paradigm for quantum technologies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	467-472
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature
Volume	611
Issue number	7936
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05262-3
State	Published - Nov 17 2022

Funding

G.C. thanks M. Lee, R. Nandkishore, X. Chen, M. Hermele, D. Singh, D. Reznik, D. Dessau and N. Clark for useful discussions. I.K. thanks E. Berg, M. Mourigal, B. Uchoa, C. Varma and Z. Wang for useful discussions. This work is supported by National Science Foundation via grants no. DMR 1903888 and DMR 2204811. The theoretical part of this work is in part performed at Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by National Science Foundation grant PHY-1607611. The work at the Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge Natinoal Laboratory is sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy.

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title = "Control of chiral orbital currents in a colossal magnetoresistance material",

abstract = "Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) is an extraordinary enhancement of the electrical conductivity in the presence of a magnetic field. It is conventionally associated with a field-induced spin polarization that drastically reduces spin scattering and electric resistance. Ferrimagnetic Mn3Si2Te6 is an intriguing exception to this rule: it exhibits a seven-order-of-magnitude reduction in ab plane resistivity that occurs only when a magnetic polarization is avoided1,2. Here, we report an exotic quantum state that is driven by ab plane chiral orbital currents (COC) flowing along edges of MnTe6 octahedra. The c axis orbital moments of ab plane COC couple to the ferrimagnetic Mn spins to drastically increase the ab plane conductivity (CMR) when an external magnetic field is aligned along the magnetic hard c axis. Consequently, COC-driven CMR is highly susceptible to small direct currents exceeding a critical threshold, and can induce a time-dependent, bistable switching that mimics a first-order {\textquoteleft}melting transition{\textquoteright} that is a hallmark of the COC state. The demonstrated current-control of COC-enabled CMR offers a new paradigm for quantum technologies.",

author = "Yu Zhang and Yifei Ni and Hengdi Zhao and Sami Hakani and Feng Ye and Lance DeLong and Itamar Kimchi and Gang Cao",

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AU - Zhang, Yu

AU - Ni, Yifei

AU - Zhao, Hengdi

AU - Hakani, Sami

AU - Ye, Feng

AU - DeLong, Lance

AU - Kimchi, Itamar

AU - Cao, Gang

PY - 2022/11/17

Y1 - 2022/11/17

N2 - Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) is an extraordinary enhancement of the electrical conductivity in the presence of a magnetic field. It is conventionally associated with a field-induced spin polarization that drastically reduces spin scattering and electric resistance. Ferrimagnetic Mn3Si2Te6 is an intriguing exception to this rule: it exhibits a seven-order-of-magnitude reduction in ab plane resistivity that occurs only when a magnetic polarization is avoided1,2. Here, we report an exotic quantum state that is driven by ab plane chiral orbital currents (COC) flowing along edges of MnTe6 octahedra. The c axis orbital moments of ab plane COC couple to the ferrimagnetic Mn spins to drastically increase the ab plane conductivity (CMR) when an external magnetic field is aligned along the magnetic hard c axis. Consequently, COC-driven CMR is highly susceptible to small direct currents exceeding a critical threshold, and can induce a time-dependent, bistable switching that mimics a first-order ‘melting transition’ that is a hallmark of the COC state. The demonstrated current-control of COC-enabled CMR offers a new paradigm for quantum technologies.

AB - Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) is an extraordinary enhancement of the electrical conductivity in the presence of a magnetic field. It is conventionally associated with a field-induced spin polarization that drastically reduces spin scattering and electric resistance. Ferrimagnetic Mn3Si2Te6 is an intriguing exception to this rule: it exhibits a seven-order-of-magnitude reduction in ab plane resistivity that occurs only when a magnetic polarization is avoided1,2. Here, we report an exotic quantum state that is driven by ab plane chiral orbital currents (COC) flowing along edges of MnTe6 octahedra. The c axis orbital moments of ab plane COC couple to the ferrimagnetic Mn spins to drastically increase the ab plane conductivity (CMR) when an external magnetic field is aligned along the magnetic hard c axis. Consequently, COC-driven CMR is highly susceptible to small direct currents exceeding a critical threshold, and can induce a time-dependent, bistable switching that mimics a first-order ‘melting transition’ that is a hallmark of the COC state. The demonstrated current-control of COC-enabled CMR offers a new paradigm for quantum technologies.

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Control of chiral orbital currents in a colossal magnetoresistance material

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