Spontaneous Anomalous Hall Effect Arising from an Unconventional Compensated Magnetic Phase in a Semiconductor

Gonzalez Betancourt, R. D.; Zubáč, J.; Gonzalez-Hernandez, R.; Geishendorf, K.; Šobáň, Z.; Springholz, G.; Olejník, K.; Šmejkal, L.; Sinova, J.; Jungwirth, T.; Goennenwein, S. T. B.; Thomas, A.; Reichlová, H.; Železný, J.; Kriegner, D.

Abstract

The anomalous Hall effect, commonly observed in metallic magnets, has been established to originate from the time-reversal symmetry breaking by an internal macroscopic magnetization in ferromagnets or by a noncollinear magnetic order. Here we observe a spontaneous anomalous Hall signal in the absence of an external magnetic field in an epitaxial film of MnTe, which is a semiconductor with a collinear antiparallel magnetic ordering of Mn moments and a vanishing net magnetization. The anomalous Hall effect arises from an unconventional phase with strong time-reversal symmetry breaking and alternating spin polarization in real-space crystal structure and momentum-space electronic structure. The anisotropic crystal environment of magnetic Mn atoms due to the nonmagnetic Te atoms is essential for establishing the unconventional phase and generating the anomalous Hall effect.

Citation

Gonzalez Betancourt, R. D., Zubáč, J., Gonzalez-Hernandez, R., Geishendorf, K., Šobáň, Z., Springholz, G., Olejník, K., Šmejkal, L., Sinova, J., Jungwirth, T., Goennenwein, S. T. B., Thomas, A., Reichlová, H., Železný, J., & Kriegner, D. (2023). Spontaneous Anomalous Hall Effect Arising from an Unconventional Compensated Magnetic Phase in a Semiconductor. Physical Review Letters, 130(3), Article 036702. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.036702

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 21, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jan 20, 2023
• Publication Date: Jan 20, 2023
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2024
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 130
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 036702
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.036702
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17933979
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.036702