Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: The physics of weak itinerant ferromagnets is challenging due to their small magnetic moments and the ambiguous role of local interactions governing their electronic properties, many of which violate Fermi-liquid theory. While magnetic fluctuations play an important role in the materials' unusual electronic states, the nature of these fluctuations and the paradigms through which they arise remain debated. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering to study magnetic fluctuations in the canonical weak itinerant ferromagnet MnSi. Data reveal that short-wavelength magnons continue to propagate until a mode crossing predicted for strongly interacting quasiparticles is reached, and the local susceptibility peaks at a coherence energy predicted for a correlated Hund metal by first-principles many-body theory. Scattering between electrons and orbital and spin fluctuations in MnSi can be understood at the local level to generate its non-Fermi liquid character. These results provide crucial insight into the role of interorbital Hund's exchange within the broader class of enigmatic multiband itinerant, weak ferromagnets.
Source: Nature Communications
Authors: Xiang Chen, Igor Krivenko, Matthew B. Stone, Alexander I. Kolesnikov, Thomas Wolf, Dmitry Reznik, Kevin S. Bedell, Frank Lechermann, Stephen D. Wilson
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,380
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Simons Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Universität Hamburg, Office of Science, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University, Division of Materials Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
OpenAlex ID: W3000483548