Inductance Meets Memory in the Quantum Magnet Mn3Si2Te6

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that in Mn3Si2Te6, collective orbital states intrinsically produce both inductance and memristance, enabling reconfigurable and energy-efficient electronic functionalities.

Contribution

It reveals that orbital currents in a bulk quantum material can generate both reactive and memory effects intrinsically, a novel insight into quantum state functionalities.

Findings

Orbital-current domains produce inductive I-V loops at low frequency.

High-frequency reconfiguration leads to remanent voltage and metastability.

Orbital currents encode both reactive and memory functionalities.

Abstract

Orbital degrees of freedom offer a largely untapped route to emergent dynamical phenomena in correlated quantum materials. However, it remains unclear whether collective orbital states can intrinsically generate both reactive and memory functionalities in a bulk system. Here we show that in the ferrimagnet Mn3Si2Te6, nonequilibrium reconfiguration of chiral orbital currents produces both emergent inductance and nonvolatile memristance as intrinsic properties of a single crystal. At low frequency and under a magnetic field along the c axis, coherent orbital-current domains generate robust clockwise inductive I-V loops. At higher frequency and low field, current-driven first-order reconfiguration leads to incomplete reversal and metastable trapping, producing an intrinsic electromotive force and a finite remanent voltage at zero current. These results establish orbital currents as a class of quantum state variables that encode both reactive and memory functionalities, opening routes toward intrinsically reconfigurable and energy-efficient electronic systems.