Comparing the anomalous Hall effect and the magneto-optical Kerr effect through antiferromagnetic phase transitions in Mn3Sn

In the non-collinear antiferromagnet Mn3Sn, we compare simultaneous measurements of the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) through two magnetic phase transitions: the high-temperature paramagnetic/antiferromagnetic (AF) phase transition at the Neel temperature (T-N approximate to 420 K) and a lower-temperature incommensurate magnetic ordering at T-1 approximate to 270 K. While both the AHE and MOKE are sensitive to the same underlying symmetries of the AF non-collinear spin order, we find that the transition temperatures measured by these two techniques unexpectedly differ by approximately 10 K. Moreover, the applied magnetic field at which the AF order reverses is significantly larger when measured by MOKE than when measured by AHE. These results point to a difference between the bulk and surface magnetic properties of Mn3Sn. Published under license by AIP Publishing.