Quasi-static remanence as a generic-feature of spin-canting in Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction driven canted-antiferromagnets

Abstract

We consistently observe a unique pattern in remanence in a number of canted-antiferromagnets (AFM) and piezomagnets. A part of the remanence is $\text{quasi-static}$ in nature and vanishes above a critical magnetic field. Present work is devoted to exploring this $\text{quasi-static}$ remanence ($\hat{I}¼$) in a series of isostructural canted-AFMs and piezomagnets that possess progressively increasing Néel temperature ($T{}_N$). Comprehensive investigation of remanence as a function of $\text{magnetic-field}$ and $\text{time}$ in CoCO${}_3$, NiCO${}_3$ and MnCO${}_3$ reveals that the magnitude of $\hat{I}¼$ increases with decreasing $T{}_N$, but the stability with time is higher in the samples with higher $T{}_N$. Further to this, all three carbonates exhibit a universal scaling in $\hat{I}¼$, which relates to the concurrent phenomenon of piezomagnetism. Overall, these data not only establish that the observation of $\text{quasi-static}$ remanence with $\text{counter-intuitive}$ magnetic-field dependence can serve as a foot-print for spin-canted systems, but also confirms that simple remanence measurements, using SQUID magnetometry, can provide insights about the extent of spin canting - a non trivial parameter to determine. In addition, these data suggest that the functional form of $\hat{I}¼$ with $\text{magnetic-field}$ and $\text{time}$ may hold key to isolate Dzyaloshinskii Moriya Interaction driven spin-canted systems from Single Ion Anisotropy driven ones. We also demonstrate the existence of $\hat{I}¼$ by tracking specific peaks in neutron diffraction data, acquired in remnant state in CoCO${}_3$.