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research article

Understanding unconventional magnetic order in a candidate axion insulator by resonant elastic x-ray scattering

Soh, Jian-Rui  
•
Bombardi, Alessandro
•
Mila, Frederic  
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June 9, 2023
Nature Communications

Magnetic topological insulators and semimetals are a class of crystalline solids whose properties are strongly influenced by the coupling between non-trivial electronic topology and magnetic spin configurations. Such materials can host exotic electromagnetic responses. Among these are topological insulators with certain types of antiferromagnetic order which are predicted to realize axion electrodynamics. Here we investigate the highly unusual helimagnetic phases recently reported in EuIn2As2, which has been identified as a candidate for an axion insulator. Using resonant elastic x-ray scattering we show that the two types of magnetic order observed in EuIn2As2 are spatially uniform phases with commensurate chiral magnetic structures, ruling out a possible phase-separation scenario, and we propose that entropy associated with low energy spin fluctuations plays a significant role in driving the phase transition between them. Our results establish that the magnetic order in EuIn2As2 satisfies the symmetry requirements for an axion insulator. EuIn2As2 is a candidate as an axion insulator, a material that can host axion-like quasi-particles, in direct analogy with the axion proposed in particle physics to resolve the so called "strong CP problem". Here Soh et al., perform resonant elastic X-Ray scattering on EuIn2As2 and show that the magnetic order consists of commensurate chiral magnetic structures, satisfying the symmetry requirements for EuIn2As2 to be an axion insulator.'

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-39138-5
Web of Science ID

WOS:001026289800038

Author(s)
Soh, Jian-Rui  
Bombardi, Alessandro
Mila, Frederic  
Rahn, Marein C.
Prabhakaran, Dharmalingam
Francoual, Sonia
Ronow, Henrik M.  
Boothroyd, Andrew T.
Date Issued

2023-06-09

Publisher

Nature Portfolio

Published in
Nature Communications
Volume

14

Issue

1

Article Number

3387

Subjects

Multidisciplinary Sciences

•

Science & Technology - Other Topics

•

cp conservation

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CTMC  
LQM  
Available on Infoscience
August 28, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/200260
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