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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Competing charge and magnetic order in the candidate centrosymmetric skyrmion host EuGa2Al2

A. M. Vibhakar1,*, D. D. Khalyavin2, J. M. Moya3,4,5, P. Manuel2, F. Orlandi2, S. Lei4,5, E. Morosan3,4,5, and A. Bombardi1,6

  • 1Diamond Light Source Ltd, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0DE, United Kingdom
  • 2ISIS facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory-STFC, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
  • 3Applied Physics Program, Smalley-Curl Institute, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
  • 5Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM), Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
  • 6Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom

  • *Corresponding author: anuradha.vibhakar@diamond.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. B 108, L100404 – Published 22 September, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.L100404

Abstract

Eu(Ga1−xAlx)4 are centrosymmetric systems that have recently been identified as candidates to stabilize topologically nontrivial magnetic phases, such as skyrmion lattices. In this Letter, we present a high-resolution resonant x-ray and neutron scattering study on EuGa2Al2 that provides new details of the complex coupling between the electronic ordering phenomena. Our results unambiguously demonstrate that the system orders to form a spin density wave with moments aligned perpendicular to the direction of the propagation vector below 19.5 K, and upon further cooling below 15 K, a cycloid with moments in the ab plane, in contrast to what has been reported in the literature. We show that concomitant with the onset of the spin density wave is the suppression of the charge density wave order, indicative of a coupling between the localized 4f electrons and itinerant electron density. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the charge density wave order breaks the fourfold symmetry present in the I4/mmm crystal structure, thus declassifying these systems as square-net magnets.

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Phys. Rev. B 108, L100404– Published 22 September, 2023
  • Received 17 April 2023
  • Revised 20 July 2023
  • Accepted 6 September 2023
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