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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.
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Control of electronic topology in a strongly correlated electron system
Abstract It is becoming increasingly clear that breakthrough in quantum applications necessitates materials innovation. In high demand are conductors with robust topological states that can be manipulated at will. This is what we demonstrate in the present work. We discover that the pronounced topological response of a strongly correlated “Weyl-Kondo” semimetal can be genuinely manipulated—and ultimately fully suppressed—by magnetic fields. We understand this behavior as a Zeeman-driven motion of Weyl nodes in momentum space, up to the point where the nodes meet and annihilate in a topological quantum phase transition. The topologically trivial but correlated background remains unaffected across this transition, as is shown by our investigations up to much larger fields. Our work lays the ground for systematic explorations of electronic topology, and boosts the prospect for topological quantum devices.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2220603
- PAR ID:
- 10561724
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Nature
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2041-1723
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33369-8
