Large resistivity change and phase transition in LiMnAs

TL;DR

This study investigates antiferromagnetic semiconductors LiMnAs and LaOMnAs, revealing significant resistivity changes and phase transitions, with potential applications in spintronics and electronic devices.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of LiMnAs and LaOMnAs, highlighting their large resistivity variation and phase transition behaviors.

Findings

Resistivity varies by over five orders of magnitude in LiMnAs and LaOMnAs.

LiMnAs exhibits a Neel temperature of 373.8 K.

LiMnAs undergoes a structural transition from tetragonal to cubic at 768 K.

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic semiconductors are new alternative materials for spintronic applications and spin valves. In this work, we report a detailed investigation of two antiferromagnetic semiconductors AMnAs (A = Li, LaO), which are isostructural to the well-known LiFeAs and LaOFeAs superconductors. Here we present a comparison between the structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of LiMnAs, LaOMnAs and related materials. Interestingly, both LiMnAs and LaOMnAs show a variation in resistivity with more than five orders of magnitude, making them particularly suitable for use in future electronic devices. From neutron and X-ray diffraction measurements on LiMnAs we have observed a magnetic phase transition corresponding to the Neel temperature of 373.8 K, and a structural transition from the tetragonal to the cubic phase at 768 K. These experimental results are supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.