Tetragonal Superstructure of the Antiskyrmion Hosting Heusler Compound Mn1.4PtSn

• Published in: Chemistry of materials 2019-08, Vol.31 (15), p.5876-5880
• Main Authors: Vir, Praveen, Kumar, Nitesh, Borrmann, Horst, Jamijansuren, Bayardulam, Kreiner, Guido, Shekhar, Chandra, Felser, Claudia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0897-4756; 1520-5002
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b02013

Skyrmions in non-centrosymmetric magnets are vortex-like spin arrangements, viewed as potential candidates for information storage devices. The crystal structure and noncollinear magnetic structure together with magnetic and spin–orbit interactions define the symmetry of the skyrmion structure. We outline the importance of these parameters in the Heusler compound Mn1.4PtSn which hosts antiskyrmions, a vortex-like spin texture related to skyrmions. We overcome the challenge of growing large micro-twin-free single crystals of Mn1.4PtSn, which has proved to be the bottleneck for realizing bulk skyrmionic/antiskyrmionic states in a compound. The use of 5d-transition metal, platinum, together with manganese as constituents in the Heusler compound such as Mn1.4PtSn is a precondition for the noncollinear magnetic structure. Because of the tetragonal inverse Heusler structure, Mn1.4PtSn exhibits large magneto-crystalline anisotropy and D 2d symmetry, which are necessary for antiskyrmions. The superstructure in Mn1.4PtSn is induced by Mn-vacancies, which enable a ferromagnetic exchange interaction to occur. Mn1.4PtSn, the first known tetragonal Heusler superstructure compound, opens up a new research direction for properties related to the superstructure in a family containing thousands of compounds.