Observations on surface magnetic order in FeGe and FeSi


Observations on surface magnetic order in FeGe and FeSi

Makarov, D.; Streubel, R.; Perez Rodriguez, N.; Pierce, D. T.; Unguris, J.; Pofahl, S.; Schäfer, R.; Schmidt, M.; Baenitz, M.; Kronast, F.; Wilhelm, H.; Rößler, U. K.

The twisted magnetization textures in chiral magnets are inherently frustrated, similarly to the mesophases in chiral liquid-crystals. The twisted basic texture can become dramatically altered by the penetration of secondary twists over larger lengths and the formation of defects. Hence, a well-ordered and smooth texture like a simple spiral may be twisted or defected. In chiral liquid-crystal systems, the frustration results in the formation of defects like the disclination networks of blue phases or twisted-grain-boundary phases. Such states can easily be shaped and transformed under the influence of competing anisotropies, e.g., by applied fields in the bulk and by anchoring the molecules of a liquid crystal at surfaces.
We investigated surfaces of FeGe single crystals with the cubic B20 structure using various magnetic imaging techniques and found a ferromagnetic order above the magnetic ordering transition in the bulk. This ferromagnetic order is seen by magnetic optical Kerr effect (MOKE) microscopy as a simple ferromagnetic domain structure of an Ising-like magnet at room-temperature. Scanning electron microcopy with polarization analysis (SEMPA) and X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) allowed us to follow the evolution of a fine-structure in this ferromagnetic surface upon lowering the temperature, when the bulk of the FeGe crystal orders into the spiral ground-state.
We discover a static defect-ordered state with a network of line-defects emerges near the surface under the influence of a particular surface-magnetic ordering transition. These defects of the helical magnetic order are topologically necessary lines where the magnetic order becomes singular or passes through zero at elevated temperatures. This ferromagnetic skin has a strong uniaxial anisotropy and frustrates the helimagnetic texture by anchoring it to the surface. In the spiral below the Neel temperature at 279 K, conical modulations in the ferromagnetic surface layer are observed that prove the formation of a network of dislocations because the propagation direction of the surface-modulation deviates from the propagation direction in the bulk. Near magnetic ordering temperature a coexistence of bubble-like circular domains and stripes is observed in the surface layer. This illustrates the appearance of complex three-dimensional textures with defects, double-twists and spiral-like kinks near the surface and related to the particular surface-magnetic ordering. Hence, at the first-order transition between the precursor state and spiral order in zero magnetic field of FeGe, a co-existence of helical and skyrmionic textures is revealed. Ab initio calculations have been used to motivate the existence of enhanced spin-moments at the surfaces of FeGe and an increased effect of spin-orbit coupling. This explains the experimental observations of a surface-magnetic ordering in FeGe, which acts like a strongly uniaxial ferromagnetic film with an Ising-like character on the underlying spiral bulk state.
Similar experiments using MOKE and XPEEM on the isostructural compound FeSi give evidence of a fragile magnetic ordering at the surface of this anomalous paramagnetic semiconductor, too. This may mean that the FeSi surfaces may behave like strongly anisotropic ultrathin magnetic films, while no magnetic long-range ordering takes place in the bulk.

Keywords: FeGe; FeSi; skyrmions

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Publ.-Id: 24449