Structural and magnetic phases of topological kagome metal Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ under pressure

TL;DR

This study explores how applying pressure alters the crystal structure and magnetic properties of the kagome metal Fe$_3$Sn$_2$, revealing phase transitions, spin state changes, and the potential to engineer magnetic and topological phases.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis combining experiments and calculations to show pressure-induced structural and magnetic phase transitions in Fe$_3$Sn$_2$, highlighting the role of spin--orbit interactions.

Findings

Structural phase transition above ~20 GPa.

High-spin to low-spin magnetic transition.

Pressure stabilizes non-collinear magnetic configurations.

Abstract

We investigate the pressure-induced evolution of crystal structure and magnetism in the kagome ferromagnet Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ by combining X-ray diffraction, X-ray Emission Spectroscopy, X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism, and spin-polarized density functional theory calculations. X-ray diffraction reveals a structural phase transition above $\sim$20~GPa, which coincides with a pronounced reduction of the local Fe magnetic moment evidenced by X-ray emission spectroscopy, indicating a high-spin to low-spin transition. While XES probes the amplitude of the local moment, XMCD provides direct information on the orientation of the ordered magnetic moments and uncovers a rich pressure--temperature magnetic phase diagram. At room temperature, a collinear ferromagnetic phase with moments aligned along the $c$ axis persists up to the structural transition. At low temperature, a tilted magnetic configuration remains stable to significantly higher pressures, while at intermediate temperatures pressure stabilizes the low-temperature magnetic phase at the expense of the high-temperature one. Spin-polarized first-principles calculations show that, although isotropic ferromagnetic exchange interactions remain robust under compression, pressure enhances spin--orbit--driven magnetic anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interactions, favoring non-collinear magnetic configurations. Our results demonstrate that pressure reshapes the magnetic energy landscape of Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ by coupling lattice, spin state, and relativistic magnetic interactions, establishing hydrostatic pressure as an effective control parameter to engineer magnetic anisotropy and potentially topological phases in kagome materials.