Hydrostatic and chemical pressure driven crossover from commensurate to the incommensurate state of the Weyl semimetal Mn$_{3+x}$Sn$_{1-x}$

TL;DR

This study investigates how hydrostatic and chemical pressures induce a transition from commensurate to incommensurate magnetic states in the Weyl semimetal Mn$_{3+x}$Sn$_{1-x}$, revealing pressure-driven changes in magnetic ordering and electronic structure.

Contribution

The paper provides the first systematic experimental and theoretical analysis of pressure-induced magnetic state crossover in Mn$_{3+x}$Sn, combining $^+$SR, neutron scattering, and band calculations.

Findings

Hydrostatic pressure induces incommensurate magnetic order below 175 K.

Chemical pressure similarly causes a transition to incommensurate states.

Band structure calculations reveal Fermi nesting as a mechanism for incommensurate ordering.

Abstract

The observation of large intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) in the non-collinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase of the Weyl semimetal Mn$_3$Sn generates enormous interest in uncovering the entanglement between the real space magnetic ordering and the momentum space band structure. Previous studies show that changes in the magnetic structure induced by the application of hydrostatic and chemical pressure can significantly affect the AHC of Mn$_{3+x}$Sn$_{1-x}$ system. Here, we employ the muon spin relaxation/rotation ($\mu^+$SR) technique to systematically investigate the evolution of different magnetic states in the Mn$_{3+x}$Sn$_{1-x}$ as a function of hydrostatic and chemical pressure. We find two muon sites experimentally, which is also supported by our \textit{ab initio} calculations. Our $\mu^+$SR experiments affirm that the $x = 0.05$ compound exhibits a commensurate magnetic state throughout the magnetically ordered phase below the Neel temperature $T_N \approx 420$~K in ambient pressure. In contrast, we observe an incommensurate magnetic state below $T_{IC} \sim 175$~K when a hydrostatic pressure of 1.5~GPa is applied. A similar transition from the commensurate to incommensurate state is also found with chemical pressure for $x = 0.04$ and $x = 0.03$, using $\mu^+$SR and elastic neutron scattering experiments. Using band structure calculations, we have shown the emergence of Fermi nesting in Mn$_3$Sn and the subsequent development of incommensurate magnetic ordering under hydrostatic/chemical pressure.