Isotropic Nature of the Metallic Kagome Ferromagnet Fe₃Sn₂ at High Temperatures

Abstract

Anisotropy and competing exchange interactions have emerged as two central ingredients needed for centrosymmetric materials to exhibit topological spin textures. Fe3Sn2 is thought to have these ingredients as well, as it has recently been discovered to host room temperature skyrmionic bubbles with an accompanying topological Hall effect. We present small-angle inelastic neutron scattering measurements that unambiguously show that Fe3Sn2 is an isotropic ferromagnet below TC≈660 K to at least 480 K—the lower temperature threshold of our experimental configuration. Fe3Sn2 is known to have competing magnetic exchange interactions, correlated electron behavior, weak magnetocrystalline anisotropy, and lattice (spatial) anisotropy; all of these features are thought to play a role in stabilizing skyrmions in centrosymmetric systems. Our results reveal that at the elevated temperatures measured, there is an absence of significant magnetocrystalline anisotropy and that the system behaves as a nearly ideal isotropic exchange interaction ferromagnet, with a spin stiffness D(T=480 K)=168 meV Å2, which extrapolates to a ground state spin stiffness D(T=0 K)=231 meV Å2.

Keywords

• inelastic neutron scattering
• topological materials
• anomalous Hall effect
• isotropic ferromagnet
• kagome
• frustrated magnetism