Dynamical criticality of spin-shear coupling in van der Waals antiferromagnets

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34376-5
• Publication Date: 2022-11-03T14:02:46Z
• Authors: Faran Zhou; Kyle Hwangbo; Qi Zhang; Chong Wang; Lingnan Shen; Jiawei Zhang; Qianni Jiang; Alfred Zong; Yifan Su; Marc Zajac; Youngjun Ahn; Donald A. Walko; Richard D. Schaller; Jiun-Haw Chu; Nuh Gedik; Xiaodong Xu; Di Xiao; Haidan Wen
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Condensed Matter - Materials Science; Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el); Science; Q; Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); FOS: Physical sciences; Article

The interplay between a multitude of electronic, spin, and lattice degrees freedom underlies the complex phase diagrams quantum materials. Layer stacking in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures is responsible for exotic electronic magnetic properties, which inspires control two-dimensional magnetism. Beyond order interlayer magnetism, we discover spin-shear coupling mechanism subtle shear atomic layers can have profound effect on intralayer family vdW antiferromagnets. Using time-resolved X-ray diffraction optical linear dichroism measurements, identified as primary structural degree that couples with order. recovery times both upon excitation diverge at ordering temperature same critical exponent. time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory shows this concurrent slowing down arises from to order, dictated by broken mirror symmetry intrinsic monoclinic stacking. Our results highlight importance ultrafast via spin-mechanical coupling.