Topology stabilized fluctuations in a magnetic nodal semimetal

Nathan C Drucker; Thanh Nguyen; Fei Han; Phum Siriviboon; Xi Luo; Nina Andrejevic; Ziming Zhu; Grigory Bednik; Quynh T Nguyen; Zhantao Chen; Linh K Nguyen; Tongtong Liu; Travis J Williams; Matthew B Stone; Alexander I Kolesnikov; Songxue Chi; Jaime Fernandez-Baca; Christie S Nelson; Ahmet Alatas; Tom Hogan; Alexander A Puretzky; Shengxi Huang; Yue Yu; Mingda Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40765-1

Topology stabilized fluctuations in a magnetic nodal semimetal

Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 25;14(1):5182. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40765-1.

Authors

Nathan C Drucker^#^{1

2}, Thanh Nguyen^#^{3

4}, Fei Han^#^{3

4}, Phum Siriviboon^#^{3

5}, Xi Luo^#⁶, Nina Andrejevic⁷, Ziming Zhu⁸, Grigory Bednik⁴, Quynh T Nguyen⁵, Zhantao Chen⁹, Linh K Nguyen⁵, Tongtong Liu⁵, Travis J Williams¹⁰, Matthew B Stone¹⁰, Alexander I Kolesnikov¹⁰, Songxue Chi¹⁰, Jaime Fernandez-Baca¹⁰, Christie S Nelson¹¹, Ahmet Alatas¹², Tom Hogan¹³, Alexander A Puretzky¹⁴, Shengxi Huang¹⁵, Yue Yu¹⁶, Mingda Li^{17

18}

Affiliations

¹ Quantum Measurement Group, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. ndrucker@g.harvard.edu.
² John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. ndrucker@g.harvard.edu.
³ Quantum Measurement Group, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁶ College of Science, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
⁷ Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA.
⁸ School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
⁹ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
¹¹ National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA.
¹² Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA.
¹³ Quantum Design, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Electrical Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. yuyue@fudan.edu.
¹⁷ Quantum Measurement Group, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. mingda@mit.edu.
¹⁸ Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. mingda@mit.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The interplay between magnetism and electronic band topology enriches topological phases and has promising applications. However, the role of topology in magnetic fluctuations has been elusive. Here, we report evidence for topology stabilized magnetism above the magnetic transition temperature in magnetic Weyl semimetal candidate CeAlGe. Electrical transport, thermal transport, resonant elastic X-ray scattering, and dilatometry consistently indicate the presence of locally correlated magnetism within a narrow temperature window well above the thermodynamic magnetic transition temperature. The wavevector of this short-range order is consistent with the nesting condition of topological Weyl nodes, suggesting that it arises from the interaction between magnetic fluctuations and the emergent Weyl fermions. Effective field theory shows that this topology stabilized order is wavevector dependent and can be stabilized when the interband Weyl fermion scattering is dominant. Our work highlights the role of electronic band topology in stabilizing magnetic order even in the classically disordered regime.

Abstract

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