Science Daily October 12, 2022
A team of researchers in the US (University of Colorado, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Kentucky) synthesized a quantum material which has the chemical formula Mn3Si2Te6 and has “honeycomb” structure because its manganese and tellurium atoms form a network of interlocking octahedra that look like the cells in a beehive. Under most circumstances, it behaved a lot like an insulator. When it was exposed to magnetic fields in a certain way, it suddenly morphed from rubber into metal in behavior. The team explained this behavior as an exotic quantum state that is driven by ab plane chiral orbital currents (COC) flowing along edges of MnTe6 octahedra. The c axis orbital moments of ab plane COC couple to the ferrimagnetic Mn spins to drastically increase the ab plane conductivity (CMR) when an external magnetic field is aligned along the magnetic hard c axis. Consequently, COC-driven CMR is highly susceptible to small direct currents exceeding a critical threshold, and can induce a time-dependent, bistable switching that mimics a first-order ‘melting transition’ that is a hallmark of the COC state. According to the researchers the demonstrated current-control of COC-enabled CMR offers a new paradigm for quantum technologies…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Physical properties in magnetic fields and phase diagram. Credit: Nature (2022)Â