<p>Co<sub>3</sub>Sn<sub>2</sub>S<sub>2</sub>, a ferromagnetic Weyl semi-metal with Co atoms on a kagome lattice, has generated much recent attention. Experiments have identified a temperature scale below the Curie temperature. Here, we find that this magnet keeps a memory, when not exposed to a magnetic field sufficiently large to erase it. We identify the driver of this memory effect as a small secondary population of spins, whose coercive field is significantly larger than that of the majority spins. The shape of the magnetization hysteresis curve has a threshold magnetic field set by the demagnetizing factor. These two field scales set the hitherto unidentified temperature scale, which is not a thermodynamic phase transition, but a crossing point between meta-stable boundaries. Global magnetization is well-defined, even when it is non-uniform, but drastic variations in local magnetization point to a coarse energy landscape, with the thermodynamic limit not achieved at micrometer length scales.</p>

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Magnetic memory and distinct spin populations in ferromagnetic Co3Sn2S2

  • Charles Menil,
  • Brigitte Leridon,
  • Antonella Cavanna,
  • Ulf Gennser,
  • Dominique Mailly,
  • Linchao Ding,
  • Xiaokang Li,
  • Zengwei Zhu,
  • Benoît Fauqué,
  • Kamran Behnia

摘要

Co3Sn2S2, a ferromagnetic Weyl semi-metal with Co atoms on a kagome lattice, has generated much recent attention. Experiments have identified a temperature scale below the Curie temperature. Here, we find that this magnet keeps a memory, when not exposed to a magnetic field sufficiently large to erase it. We identify the driver of this memory effect as a small secondary population of spins, whose coercive field is significantly larger than that of the majority spins. The shape of the magnetization hysteresis curve has a threshold magnetic field set by the demagnetizing factor. These two field scales set the hitherto unidentified temperature scale, which is not a thermodynamic phase transition, but a crossing point between meta-stable boundaries. Global magnetization is well-defined, even when it is non-uniform, but drastic variations in local magnetization point to a coarse energy landscape, with the thermodynamic limit not achieved at micrometer length scales.