@article{e5bde28b994f404f9dc079ac87208bdc,
title = "Strain-induced switching between noncollinear and collinear spin configuration in magnetic Mn5Ge3 films",
abstract = "We report the temperature-dependent magnetic and structural properties of epitaxial Mn5Ge3 thin films grown on Ge substrates. Utilizing density-functional theory (DFT) calculations and various experimental methods, we reveal mechanisms governing the switching between collinear and noncollinear spin configuration in Mn5Ge3. The Mn atoms in Mn5Ge3 occupy two distinct Wyckoff positions with fourfold (Mn1) and sixfold (Mn2) multiplicity. The DFT calculations reveal that below a critical distance of approximately 3.002 {\AA} the coupling between Mn2 atoms is antiferromagnetic (AFM) while ferromagnetic (FM) above that critical distance. The FM coupling between Mn1 atoms is weakly affected by the strain. The observed noncollinear spin configuration is due to the coexistence of AFM and FM coupling at low temperatures. The findings give insight in developing strain-controlled spintronic devices.",
author = "Yufang Xie and Ye Yuan and Magdalena Birowska and Chenhui Zhang and Lei Cao and Mao Wang and Joerg Grenzer and Dominik Kriegner and Petr Dole{\v z}al and Yu-Jia Zeng and Xixiang Zhang and Manfred Helm and Shengqiang Zhou and Slawomir Prucnal",
note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-08-13 Acknowledgements: Y.X. (File No. 201706340054) acknowledges the financial support by China Scholarship Council. M.B. is funded by the National Science Centre Grant No. UMO2016/23/D/ST3/03446. Access to computing facilities of PL-Grid Polish Infrastructure for Supporting Computational Science in the European Research Space and of the Interdisciplinary Center of Modeling (ICM), University of Warsaw is gratefully acknowledged. We made use of computing facilities of TU Dresden ZIH within the project “TransPheMat.” The low-temperature x-ray diffraction was performed in MGML [47], which was supported within the program of Czech Research Infrastructures (Project No. LM2018096). Author Y.X. performed the basic magnetic and transport measurements. Y.Y. and C.Z. performed angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements. P.D. and D.K. performed the temperature-dependent XRD measurements. M.B. performed the DFT calculations and related analyses. J.G. contributed to the discussion about structural analyses. D.K. and X.Z. contributed to the discussion about transport analyses. M.H., S.Z., L.C., Y.-J.Z., and M.W. contributed to the revision of the manuscript. S.P. designed and supervised the whole project",
year = "2021",
month = aug,
day = "9",
doi = "10.1103/physrevb.104.064416",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "104",
journal = "Physical Review B",
issn = "2469-9950",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "6",
}