Magnetization tunable Weyl states in EuB6

TL;DR

This study reveals that EuB6 exhibits tunable magnetic topological phases correlated with magnetization directions, using magnetotransport measurements and first principles calculations, providing a platform for exploring magnetic order-driven topological phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of versatile magnetic topological phases in EuB6 that are tunable by crystallographic direction and magnetization, combining experimental and theoretical approaches.

Findings

EuB6 exhibits different topological phases along various crystallographic directions.

Magnetotransport anisotropy reflects the magnetic ground state.

Strong coupling between local magnetization and conduction electrons.

Abstract

The interplay between magnetism and topological band structure offers extraordinary opportunities to realize rich exotic magnetic topological phases such as axion insulators, Weyl semimetals, and quantum anomalous Hall insulators, which therefore has attracted fast growing research interest. The rare-earth hexaborides EuB6 represents an interesting magnetic topological phase with tunable magnetizations along different crystallographic directions, while the correlation with the topological properties remains scarcely explored. In this work, combining magnetotransport measurements and first principles calculations, we demonstrate that EuB6 exhibits versatile magnetic topological phases along different crystallographic directions, which tightly correlate with the varied magnetizations. Moreover, by virtue of the weak magneto-crystalline anisotropy and the relatively strong coupling between the local magnetization and the conduction electrons, we show that the magnetic ground state of the system can be directly probed by the anisotropy in the magnetotransport properties. Our work thus introduces an excellent platform to study the rich topological phases that are tunable by magnetic orders.