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Magnetic topological semimetals LnSbTe (Ln = Lanthanide) have attracted intensive attention because of the presence of interplay between magnetism, topological, and electron correlations depending on the choices of magnetic Ln elements. Recently, varying Sb-Te composition has been found to effectively control the electronic and magnetic states in LnSbxTe$_{2-x}$. With this motivation, we report the evolution of magnetic properties with Sb-Te substitution in NdSb$_x$Te$_{2-x+\delta}$. Our work reveals the interesting non-monotonic change in magnetic ordering temperature with varying composition stoichiometry. In addition, reducing the Sb content x drives the reorientation of moments from in-plane (ab-plane) to out-of-plane (c-axis) direction that results in the distinct magnetic structures for two end compounds NdTe$_2$ ($x = 0$) and NdSbTe ($x = 1$). Furthermore, the moment orientation in NdSb$_x$Te$_{2-x+\delta}$ is also found to be strongly tunable upon application of weak magnetic field, leading to rich magnetic phases depending on the composition stoichiometry, temperature, and magnetic field. Such strong tuning of magnetism in this material establishes it as a promising platform for investigating tunable topological states and correlated topological physics., Comment: 35 pages, 5 figures

We synthesized single crystals for Mn2-xZnxSb and studied their magnetic and electronic transport properties. This material system displays rich magnetic phase tunable with temperature and Zn composition. In addition, two groups of distinct magnetic and electronic properties, separated by a critical Zn composition of x = 0.6, are discovered. The Zn-less samples are metallic and characterized by a resistivity jump at the magnetic ordering temperature, while the Zn-rich samples lose metallicity and show a metal-to-insulator transition-like feature tunable by magnetic field. Our findings establish Mn2-xZnxSb as a promising material platform that offers opportunities to study how the coupling of spin, charge, and lattice degrees of freedom governs interesting transport properties in 2D magnets, which is currently a topic of broad interest., Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, Figures are at the end of the manuscript

The ZrSiS-type materials have attracted intensive attention due to the existence of various topological fermions. The magnetic version of the ZrSiS-type materials, LnSbTe (Ln = lanthanides), is an ideal candidate to explore novel exotic states due to the interaction between magnetism and topology. In this work, we report the experimental study on structural, magnetic, thermodynamic, and electronic properties for SmSbxTe2-x with various Sb content. The revealed evolutions of these properties with tuning the compositions would provide useful insights for the fundamental topological physics and the future applications., Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

Understanding the physics of phase transitions in two-dimensional (2D) systems underpins the research in diverse fields including statistical mechanics, quantum systems, nanomagnetism, and soft condensed matter. However, many fundamental aspects of 2D phase transitions are still not well understood, including the effects of interparticle potential, polydispersity, and particle shape. Magnetic skyrmions, which are non-trivial chiral spin structures, can be considered as quasi-particles that form two-dimensional lattices. Here we show, by real-space imaging using in situ cryo-Lorentz transmission electron microscopy coupled with machine learning, the ordering behavior of N\'eel skyrmion lattices in van der Waals Fe3GeTe2. We demonstrate a distinct change in the skyrmion size distribution during field-cooling, which leads to a loss of lattice order and an evolution of the skyrmion liquid phase. Remarkably, the lattice order is restored during field heating and demonstrates a thermal hysteresis. Our quantitative analysis explains this behavior based on the energy landscape of skyrmions and demonstrates the potential to control the lattice order in 2D phase transitions.

Two-dimensional magnetic van der Waals (vdW) materials can show a variety of topological nontrivial spin textures, such as Bloch- or N\'eel-type stripe, skyrmion or bubble domains under certain external stimuli. It is critical to understand the magnetic domain behavior in vdW materials in order to control their size, and density in response to external stimuli such as electric and magnetic fields. Here we examine the magnetic field dependence of topologically non-trivial magnetization spin textures in vdW Fe$_3$GeTe$_2$. N\'eel-type stripe domains and skyrmions are formed depending on the magnetic field-cooling protocol used during in-situ Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) experiments. Use of quantitative reconstruction of magnetic induction maps, and micromagnetic simulations, allow for understanding the LTEM results of N\'eel-type stripe domains as well as skyrmions. In addition, the deformation of skyrmion contrast is observed as a result of the introduction of an in-plane magnetic field. We demonstrate the stability of the stripe domains and skyrmions in response to externally applied magnetic field due to energy barrier for domain wall annihilation. Our results establish an understanding of the energy landscape that governs the behavior of the topologically non-trivial spin textures in vdW materials which can be harnessed for spintronic applications., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures

Topological magnetism typically appears in noncentrosymmetric compounds or compounds with geometric frustration. Here we report the effective tuning of magnetism in centrosymmetric tetragonal Mn2-xZnxSb by Zn substitution. The magnetism is found to be closely coupled to the transport properties, giving rise to to a very large topological hall effect is possibly associated with topological magnetism. Our finding suggests Mn2-xZnxSb is a candidate material for the centrosymmetric tetragonal topological magnetic system, offers opportunities for studying and tuning spin textures and developing near room temperature spin-based devices., Comment: 15 pages, 4 Figures and already published in Physical Review B

The ZrSiS family of compounds hosts various exotic quantum phenomena due to the presence of both topological nonsymmorphic Dirac fermions and nodal-line fermions. In this material family, the LnSbTe (Ln= lanthanide) compounds are particularly interesting owing to the intrinsic magnetism from magnetic Ln which leads to new properties and quantum states. In this work, the authors focus on the previously unexplored compound SmSbTe. The studies reveal a rare combination of a few functional properties in this material, including antiferromagnetism with possible magnetic frustration, electron correlation enhancement, and Dirac nodal-line fermions. These properties enable SmSbTe as a unique platform to explore exotic quantum phenomena and advanced functionalities arising from the interplay between magnetism, topology, and electronic correlations., Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures

Recent developments in two-dimensional (2D) magnetism have motivated the search for novel van-der Waals (vdWs) magnetic materials to explore new magnetic phenomenon in the 2D limit. Metal thiophosphates, MPX3, is a class of magnetic vdWs materials with antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering persisting down to the atomically thin limit. The magnetism in this material family has been found to be highly dependent on the choice of transition metal M. In this work, we have synthesized the intermediate compounds Ni1-xMnxPS3 (0 < x < 1) and investigated their magnetic properties. Our study reveals that the variation of Ni and Mn content in Ni1-xMnxPS3 can efficiently tune the spin-flop transition, likely due to the modulation of the magnetic anisotropy. Such effective tunning offers a promising candidate to engineer 2D magnetism for future device applications.