Epitaxial growth of high quality Mn3Sn thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Noncollinear antiferromagnet Weyl semimetal Mn3Sn has recently attracted great research interest. Although large anomalous Hall effect (AHE), anomalous Nernst effect (ANE), and magneto-optical effect have been observed in Mn3Sn, most studies are based on single crystals. So far, it is still challenging to grow high quality epitaxial Mn3Sn thin films with transport and optical properties comparable to their single crystal counterparts. Here, we report the structure and magneto-optical and transport properties of epitaxial Mn3Sn thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Highly oriented Mn3+xSn1-x (0001) and (11 2 0) epitaxial films are growth on single crystalline Al2O3 and MgO substrates. Large anomalous Hall effect up to |delta rho(H)| = 3.02 mu omega cm and longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect with |theta(K)| = 38.1 mdeg at 633 nm wavelength are measured at 300 K, which are comparable to Mn3Sn single crystals. Our work demonstrates that high quality Mn3Sn epitaxial thin films can be fabricated by PLD, paving the way for future device applications.

Automated summary

This study reports the structure, magneto-optical, and transport properties of epitaxial Mn3Sn thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The anomalous Hall effect and longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect of the epitaxial films were found comparable to Mn3Sn single crystals. The work paves the way for future device applications of high-quality Mn3Sn epitaxial thin films.