Transitions from a Kondo-like diamagnetic insulator into a modulated ferromagnetic metal in ${\mathrm{FeGa}}_{3-\mathbf{y}}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{\mathbf{y}}$

Abstract

One initial and essential question of magnetism is whether the magnetic properties of a material are governed by localized moments or itinerant electrons. Here we expose the case for the weakly ferromagnetic system FeGa${}_{3-y}$Ge${}_y$ wherein these two opposite models are reconciled, such that the magnetic susceptibility is quantitatively explained by taking into account the effects of spin-spin correlation. With the electron doping introduced by Ge substitution, the diamagnetic insulating parent compound FeGa${}_3$ becomes a paramagnetic metal as early as at $y=0.01$, and turns into a weakly ferromagnetic metal around the quantum critical point $y=0.15$. Within the ferromagnetic regime of FeGa${}_{3-y}$Ge${}_y$, the magnetic properties are of a weakly itinerant ferromagnetic nature, located in the intermediate regime between the localized and the itinerant dominance. Our analysis implies a potential universality for all itinerant-electron ferromagnets.

References in corpus (8)

• Spontaneous Skyrmion Ground States in Magnetic Metals
• Fermi-liquid instabilities at magnetic quantum phase transitions
• High-temperature superconductivity in iron-based materials
• "Deconfined" quantum critical points
• Interface-Induced Phenomena in Magnetism
• Magnetism and its microscopic origin in iron-based high-temperature superconductors
• Iron pnictides as a new setting for quantum criticality
• Testing the itinerancy of spin dynamics in superconducting Bi2212