Evidence for surface spin structures from first order reversal curves in Co3Sn2S2 and Fe3GeTe2 magnetic topological semimetals

TL;DR

This study reveals a universal, temperature-stable surface spin phase in magnetic topological semimetals Co3Sn2S2 and Fe3GeTe2, identified through first order reversal curves and hysteresis analysis, likely due to topological surface states.

Contribution

It provides evidence that the second magnetic phase observed is due to topologically protected surface states, demonstrating a universal behavior across different magnetic topological semimetals.

Findings

Observation of temperature-dependent magnetization switching and inverted hysteresis.

Confirmation of two-phase behavior via first order reversal curve analysis.

Identification of a temperature-stable surface spin phase likely linked to topological surface states.

Abstract

We study magnetization reversal and first order reversal curves for two different magnetic topological semimetals, Co3Sn2S2 and Fe3GeTe2, in a wide temperature range. For the magnetization reversal, we observe strong temperature dependence of the initial (low-temperature) step-like magnetization switchings, so the inverted hysteresis appears at high temperatures. Usually, the inverted hysteresis is a fingerprint of material with two independent magnetic phases, the inversion reflects the phase interaction. First order reversal curve analysis confirms the two-phase behavior even at the lowest temperatures of the experiment. While the bulk ferromagnetic magnetization shows strong temperature dependence, one of the observed phases demonstrates perfect stability below the Curie temperature. The obtained hysteresis loops are of the bow-tie type, which is usually ascribed to appearance of the skyrmionic phase. The described two-phase behavior is mostly identical for Co3Sn2S2 and Fe3GeTe2 magnetic topological semimetals, only the characteristic temperatures differ for these materials. The specifics of our experiment is the excellent temperature stability of the second phase, while the skyrmions are usually observed near the Curie temperature. On the other hand, temperature stability can be expected for surface-state induced spin textures due to the topological protection of surface states in topological semimetals. This also explains the universal behavior of the second phase for two different topological semimetals Co3Sn2S2 and FGT. Both these materials have strongly different bulk properties, the only similarity is the presence of the topological surface states. Thus, we can ascribe the second, temperature-stable magnetic phase to the surface states in topological semimetals.