Direct observation of antiferromagnetic parity violation in the electronic structure of Mn2Au

O Fedchenko; L Šmejkal; M Kallmayer; Ya Lytvynenko; K Medjanik; S Babenkov; D Vasilyev; M Kläui; J Demsar; G Schönhense; M Jourdan; J Sinova; H J Elmers

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/ac87e6

Direct observation of antiferromagnetic parity violation in the electronic structure of Mn₂Au

J Phys Condens Matter. 2022 Aug 18;34(42). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ac87e6.

Authors

O Fedchenko¹, L Šmejkal^{1

2}, M Kallmayer³, Ya Lytvynenko^{1

4}, K Medjanik¹, S Babenkov¹, D Vasilyev¹, M Kläui¹, J Demsar¹, G Schönhense¹, M Jourdan¹, J Sinova^{1

2}, H J Elmers¹

Affiliations

¹ Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, D-55099 Mainz, Germany.
² Institute of Physics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Cukrovarnická 10, Praha 6, Czech Republic.
³ Surface Concept GmbH, Am Sägewerk 23A, D-55124 Mainz, Germany.
⁴ Institute of Magnetism of the National Academy of Science and MES of Ukraine, Vernadsky Blvd, 36b, 03142 Kyiv, Ukraine.

PMID: 35940170
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/ac87e6

Abstract

Using momentum microscopy with sub-µm spatial resolution, allowing momentum resolved photoemission on individual antiferromagnetic domains, we observe an asymmetry in the electronic band structure,E(k)≠E(-k), in Mn₂Au. This broken band structure parity originates from the combined time and parity symmetry,PT, of the antiferromagnetic order of the Mn moments, in connection with spin-orbit coupling. The spin-orbit interaction couples the broken parity to the Néel order parameter direction. We demonstrate a novel tool to image the Néel vector direction,N, by combining spatially resolved momentum microscopy withab-initiocalculations that correlate the broken parity with the vectorN.

Keywords: ARPES; Mn2Au; antiferromagnetic; magnetic linear dichroism; momentum microscopy; parity; spintronics.