Microscopic origins and stability of the ferromagnetism in Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$

TL;DR

This study investigates the dual nature of ferromagnetism in Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$, revealing its itinerant and localized characteristics, and explores how magnetic interactions evolve with temperature and electronic structure changes.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the microscopic origins and stability of ferromagnetism in Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ using advanced response theories and highlights the role of ligand states and interlayer interactions.

Findings

Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ exhibits dual itinerant and localized magnetic behavior.

Interlayer exchange interactions are strongest between next-nearest neighbors.

Magnetic order becomes quasi-two-dimensional and unstable near the Curie temperature.

Abstract

Based on the density functional theory, we examine the origin of ferromagnetism in the Weyl semimetal Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ using different types of response theories. We argue that the magnetism of Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ has a dual nature and bears certain aspects of both itineracy and localization. On the one hand, the magnetism is soft, where the local magnetic moments strongly depend on temperature and the angles formed by these moments at different Co sites of the kagome lattice, as expected for itinerant magnets. On the other hand, the picture of localized spins still remains adequate for the description of the local stability of the ferromagnetic (FM) order with respect to the transversal spin fluctuations. For the latter purposes, we employ two approaches, which provide quite different pictures for interatomic exchange interactions: the regular magnetic force theorem and a formally exact theory based on the calculation of the inverse response function. The exact theory predicts Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ to be a three-dimensional ferromagnet with the strongest interaction operating between next-nearest neighbors in the adjacent kagome planes. The ligand states are found to play a very important role by additionally stabilizing the FM order. When the local moments decrease, the interplane interactions sharply decrease, first causing the FM order to become quasi-two-dimensional, and then making it unstable with respect to the spin-spiral order propagating perpendicular to the kagome plane. The latter instability is partly contributed by the states at the Fermi surface and may be relevant to the magnetic behavior of Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ near the Curie temperature. Peculiarities of the half-metallic ferromagnetism in Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ are also discussed.