Correlation driven topological nodal ring ferromagnetic spin gapless semimetal: CsMnF4

Abstract

The observation of in-plane ferromagnetism in layered magnetic materials in conjunction with the topological nodal-ring dispersion in a spin gapless semimetal with 100 % spin polarization has a fertile ground for novel physics, rich scientific significance and for the next-generation advanced spintronic and topological devices. Topological nodal ring spin gapless semimetals with large band gap in the other spin channel prevents the spin leakage and are excellent spintronic materials. On the basis of density functional theory (DFT), we have studied the layered magnetic perovskite, CsMnF4 which is predicted to be a ferromagnetic insulator though the fellow compounds like AMnF4 (A = Na, K, Rb) are anti-ferromagnetic in nature. DFT + U calculations reveal that this layered system undergoes a transition from an insulating to half-semimetallic nature with decreasing on-site Hubbard Coulomb interaction, U. For U = 2.5 eV, we observe the topological nature in the system with the emergence of four Mexican hat like dispersions associated with band-flipping. Also, we calculated the magneto-crystalline anisotropic energy with inclusion of spin–orbit coupling (SOC) and found that the system consists of in-plane ferromagnetism. Transport properties infer huge anisotropy of one order of magnitude between ’a’ and ’c’ axes. Interestingly, the estimated Fermi velocities are 2.66 × 105 and 2.24 × 105 m s−1 for Z(=0) and Z(=0.5) plane respectively and are comparable to that of graphene, which might fetch applications in high speed spin electronic devices. The topological phase observed is robust to SOC and the band-crossings associated with nodal rings could be preserved by additional symmetry as the time-reversal symmetry breaks in magnetic systems. The nearly charge compensation observed from Fermi surfaces might fetch memory device applications.