Coupling between magnetic and transport properties in magnetic layered material Mn2-xZnxSb

We synthesized single crystals for Mn2-xZnxSb (0 <= x <= 1) and studied their magnetic and electronic transport properties. This material system displays rich magnetic phase tunable with temperature and Zn composition. In addition, two groups of distinct magnetic and electronic properties, separated by a critical Zn composition of x = 0.6, are discovered. The Zn-less samples are metallic and characterized by a resistivity jump at the magnetic ordering temperature, while the Zn-rich samples lose metallicity and show a metal-to-insulator transition-like feature tunable by magnetic field. Our findings establish Mn2-xZnxSb as a promising material platform that offers opportunities to study how the coupling of spin, charge, and lattice degrees of freedom governs interesting transport properties in 2D magnets, which is currently a topic of broad interest.

Automated summary

We synthesized single crystals of Mn2-xZnxSb (0 <= x <= 1) and studied their magnetic and electronic transport properties. This material system exhibits rich magnetic phases that can be tuned with temperature and Zn composition. Additionally, we discovered two groups of samples with distinct magnetic and electronic properties, separated by a critical Zn composition of x = 0.6. The Zn-less samples are metallic and exhibit a resistivity jump at the magnetic ordering temperature, while the Zn-rich samples lose their metallic behavior and show a metal-to-insulator transition-like feature that can be tuned by a magnetic field. Our findings establish Mn2-xZnxSb as a promising material platform for studying the interesting transport properties in 2D magnets, which is currently a topic of broad interest.