Diversified Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida Interactions in a Nonsymmorphic Crystal

TL;DR

This paper reveals that nonsymmorphic symmetries in crystals lead to diverse RKKY magnetic interactions, which depend on impurity positions and electronic structures, offering new avenues for designing magnetic properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of various RKKY interactions in nonsymmorphic crystals and explains their dependence on impurity and electron positions, highlighting the role of nonsymmorphic symmetries.

Findings

Multiple types of RKKY interactions can coexist in nonsymmorphic crystals.

Interaction strengths depend on impurity positions and reciprocal space electron distribution.

Nonsymmorphic symmetries influence magnetic behavior and interaction diversity.

Abstract

We show that there are diversified Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions between magnetic impurities, mediated by itinerant electrons, in a centrosymmetric crystal respecting a nonsymmorphic space group. We take the $P4/nmm$ space group as an example. We demonstrate that the different type of interactions, including the Heisenberg-type, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM)-type, the Ising-type and the anisotropic interactions, can appear in accordance with the positions of the impurities in the real space. Their strengths strongly depend on the location of the itinerant electrons in the reciprocal space. The diversity stems from the position-dependent site groups and the momentum-dependent electronic structures guaranteed by the nonsymmorphic symmetries. Our study unveils the role of the nonsymmorphic symmetries in affecting magnetism, and suggests that the nonsymmorphic crystals can be promising platforms to design magnetic interactions.