Origin of incommensurate magnetic order in the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mi>AlSi</mml:mi></mml:math> magnetic Weyl semimetals <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mi>Pr</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mo> </mml:mo><mml:mi>Nd</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mo> </mml:mo><mml:mi>Sm</mml:mi><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:math>
Juba Bouaziz, Gustav Bihlmayer, Christopher E. Patrick, J. B. Staunton, Stefan Blügel
Abstract
We investigate rare-earth magnetic Weyl semimetals through first-principles simulations, analyzing the connection between incommensurate magnetic order and the presence of Weyl nodes in the electronic band structure. Focusing on PrAlSi, NdAlSi, and SmAlSi, we demonstrate that the reported helical ordering does not originate from the nesting of topological features at the Fermi surface or the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Instead, the helical order arises from frustrated isotropic short-range superexchange between the $4f$ moments facilitated by $pd$ hybridization with the main group elements. Employing a spin Hamiltonian with isotropic exchange and single-ion anisotropy we replicate the experimentally observed helical modulation.