Magnetic tunability in tetragonal Mn--Rh--Ir--Sn inverse Heusler compounds

Abstract

Gaining control over magnetic structure has been an ongoing challenge in materials that form complex, nanoscale, non-collinear magnetic configurations. Recently, it was predicted that tuning the ratio of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction to the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in tetragonal inverse Heuslers through changes in composition could allow a range of interesting magnetic states to be accessed, from simple ferrimagnetism, to helical and antiskyrmionic phases. Here, we show tunability of the magnetic phase behavior in the Mn--Rh--Sn system through Ir substitution on the Rh substructure. Iridium substitution correlates to an increase in the strength of ferromagnetic exchange couplings, at the expense of antiferromagnetic exchange couplings. However, we do not observe the complex non-collinear magnetic phases proposed previously, likely due to the extremely narrow composition window where these phases are predicted to form in a bulk sample. This work highlights the sensitivity of complex magnetic structures to stoichiometry, which makes them difficult to discover empirically.