Pressure engineering of colossal magnetoresistance in the ferrimagnetic nodal-line semiconductor <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>Mn</mml:mi><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mi>Si</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mi>Te</mml:mi><mml:mn>6</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>
Jing Wang, Shuyang Wang, Xinyi He, Ying Zhou, Chao An, Min Zhang, Yonghui Zhou, Yuyan Han, Xuliang Chen, Jian Zhou, Zhaorong Yang
Abstract
Ferrimagnetic nodal-line semiconductor ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{6}$ exhibits exotic magnetotransport behavior, termed colossal angular magnetoresistance. Here, by investigating the pressure effects on the electronic and magnetic properties of single-crystal ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}{\mathrm{Si}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{6}$, we demonstrate a pressure-induced semiconductor-metal transition between 1.5 and 2.5 GPa as well as a possible structural transition/amorphization at \ensuremath{\sim}12 GPa. Both DC magnetization and density-functional theory calculation indicate the steady stabilization of ferrimagnetism upon compression up to at least 10 GPa, as evidenced by the monotonic increment of Curie temperature ${T}_{\mathrm{C}}$. However, the colossal magnetoresistance occurs only in the semiconducting state and is dramatically suppressed and eventually absent in the metallic state. These findings provide important insight into the microscopic interplay between non-trivial band topology and intrinsic magnetic order.