Helimagnetic Structure and Heavy-Fermion-Like Behavior in the Vicinity of the Quantum Critical Point in Mn_{3}P

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 124; no. 8; p. 087202
• Main Authors: Kotegawa, Hisashi, Matsuda, Masaaki, Ye, Feng, Tani, Yuki, Uda, Kohei, Kuwata, Yoshiki, Tou, Hideki, Matsuoka, Eiichi, Sugawara, Hitoshi, Sakurai, Takahiro, Ohta, Hitoshi, Harima, Hisatomo, Takeda, Keiki, Hayashi, Junichi, Araki, Shingo, Kobayashi, Tatsuo C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 28.02.2020
• ISSN: 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.087202

Antiferromagnet Mn_{3}P with Neel temperature T_{N}=30  K is composed of Mn tetrahedrons and zigzag chains formed by three inequivalent Mn sites. Due to the nearly frustrated lattice with many short Mn-Mn bonds, competition of the exchange interactions is expected. We here investigate the magnetic structure and physical properties including pressure effect in single crystals of this material, and reveal a complex yet well-ordered helimagnetic structure. The itinerant character of this materials is strong, and the ordered state with small magnetic moments is easily suppressed under pressure, exhibiting a quantum critical point at ∼1.6  GPa. The remarkable mass renormalization, even in the ordered state, and an incoherent-coherent crossover in the low-temperature region, characterize an unusual electronic state in Mn_{3}P, which is most likely effected by the underlying frustration effect.