Topological magnetic textures and long-range orders in Tb-based quasicrystal and approximant

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates the existence of ferromagnetic long-range order and complex topological magnetic textures in Tb-based quasicrystals and approximants, revealing their potential for novel topological phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic model accounting for crystalline electric field effects, elucidating magnetic textures and topological states in Tb-based quasicrystals and approximants.

Findings

Discovery of ferromagnetic long-range order in Tb-based quasicrystals.

Identification of topological magnetic textures like hedgehog and whirling-moment states.

Observation of topological Hall effect and metamagnetic transitions under magnetic field.

Abstract

The quasicrystal(QC)s have unique lattice structure with the rotational symmetry forbidden in the periodic crystals. The electric properties are far from complete understanding. It has been unresolved whether the magnetic long-range orders are realized in the QC. Here we report our theoretical discovery of the ferromagnetic long-range order in the Tb-based QC. The difficulty in past theoretical studies on the QC was lack of the microscopic theory of the crystalline electric field (CEF), which is crucially important in the rare-earth systems. By analyzing the CEF in the Tb-based QC, we clarify that magnetic anisotropy plays a key role in realizing unique magnetic textures in the Tb-based QC and approximant crystal (AC). By constructing the minimal model, we show that various magnetic textures on the icosahedron at whose vertices Tb atoms are located. We find that the hedgehog state is characterized by the topological charge of one and the whirling-moment state is characterized by unusually large topological charge of three. The hedgehog and whirling-moment states are shown to be realized as antiferromagnetic orders transcribed as the emergent monopole and antimonopole in the 1/1 AC. We find that these states exhibit the topological Hall effect under applied magnetic field accompanied by the topological as well as metamagnetic transition. Our model and the determined phase diagram are expected to be relevant to the broad range of the rare-earth based QCs and ACs with strong magnetic anisotropy, which are useful not only to understand magnetism but also to explore novel topological properties.