Large ordered moment with strong easy-plane anisotropy and vortex-domain pattern in the kagome ferromagnet Fe3Sn

We report the magnetic anisotropy of kagome bilayer ferromagnet Fe3Sn probed by the bulk magnetometry and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) on high-quality single crystals. The dependence of magnetization on the orientation of the external magnetic field reveals strong easyplane magnetocrystalline anisotropy and anisotropy of the saturation magnetization. The leading magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant shows a monotonous increase from K-1 approximate to -1.0 x 10(6) J/m(3) at 300K to -1.3 x 10(6) J/m(3) at 2K. Our ab initio electronic structure calculations yield the value of total magnetic moment of 7.1 mu(B)=f.u. and a magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy density of -0.57meV=f.u. (-1.62 x 10(6)J/m(3)) both being in reasonable agreement with the experimental values. The MFM imaging reveals micrometer-scale magnetic vortices with weakly pinned cores that vanish at the saturation field of similar to 3T applied perpendicular to the kagome plane. The observed vortex-domain structure is well reproduced by the micromagnetic simulations, using the experimentally determined value of the anisotropy and exchange stiffness. (c) 2023 Author(s).

Automated summary

We investigated the magnetic anisotropy of Fe3Sn kagome bilayer ferromagnet using bulk magnetometry and magnetic force microscopy. The magnetization dependence on the orientation of the external magnetic field showed strong easyplane magnetocrystalline anisotropy and anisotropy of the saturation magnetization. Ab initio electronic structure calculations and micromagnetic simulations agreed well with the experimental values, providing insights into the magnetic properties of Fe3Sn.