Abstract
Pressure can transform a transparent material into an opaque one, quench the moments in a magnet and force solids to flow like liquids. At 15â ‰GPa, the pressure found 500â ‰km below the earthâ ™ s surface, the semiconductors silicon and germanium superconduct. Yet, at this same pressure, we show here that the magnetism in metallic GdSi remains completely robust even as it shrinks by one-seventh of its volume. Non-resonant X-ray magnetic diffraction in a specially designed diamond anvil cell, combined with band structure calculations, reveal the stability of the incommensurate spin density wave, which can be traced to a persistently nested portion of the Fermi surface that becomes increasingly one-dimensional under pressure. A cooperative interaction between nested, itinerant spins and local magnetic moments provides the organizing principle for the modulated magnetic order, salient both for its insights into the role of topology in ordered states and its potential functionality.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 4218 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 18 2014 |
Funding
The work at the University of Chicago was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant number DMR-1206519. The work at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences (DOE-BES) under contract number NEAC02-06CH11357. Both P.B.L. and work at ORNL were supported by the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, U.S. DOE-BES. Work at LANL was supported in part by the U.S. DOE. B.M. acknowledges support from NSF through its employee IR/D programme. A.P. was supported in part by DOE-SCGF under contract number DE-AC05-06OR23100.