Abstract
The Mn(Bi1-xSbx)2Te4 series is purported to span from an antiferromagnetic (AF) topological insulator at x=0 to a trivial AF insulator at x=1. Here we report on neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering studies of the magnetic interactions across this series. All compounds measured possess ferromagnetic (FM) triangular layers and we find a crossover from AF to FM interlayer coupling near x=1 for our samples. The large spin gap at x=0 closes rapidly and the average FM exchange interactions within the triangular layer increase with Sb substitution. Similar to a previous study of MnBi2Te4, we find severe spectral broadening which increases dramatically across the compositional series. In addition to broadening, we observe an additional sharp magnetic excitation in MnSb2Te4 that may indicate the development of local magnetic modes originating from antisite disorder between Mn and Sb sublattices. The results suggest that both substitutional and antisite disorder contribute substantially to the magnetism in Mn(Bi1-xSbx)2Te4.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 064401 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 104 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1 2021 |
Funding
R.J.M. would like to thank C. M. Brown for assistance and hospitality with the NIST experiment. We also thank W. Zhou for his experimental support with the DCS instrument at NIST. Work at Ames Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering. Ames Laboratory is operated for the USDOE by Iowa State University under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11358. We acknowledge the support of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, in providing the neutron research facilities used in this work. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| National Institute of Standards and Technology | |
| U.S. Department of Commerce | |
| Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Iowa State University | DE-AC02-07CH11358 |
| Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering |