Piezomagnetism as a counterpart of the magnetovolume effect in magnetically frustrated Mn-based antiperovskite nitrides

Abstract

Electric-field control of magnetization promises to substantially enhance the energy efficiency of device applications ranging from data storage to solid-state cooling. However, the intrinsic linear magnetoelectric effect is typically small in bulk materials. In thin films, electric-field tuning of spin-orbit-interaction phenomena (e.g., magnetocrystalline anisotropy) has been reported to achieve a partial control of the magnetic state. Here we explore the piezomagnetic effect (PME), driven by frustrated exchange interactions, which can induce a net magnetization in an antiferromagnet and reverse its direction via elastic strain generated piezoelectrically. Our ab initio study of PME in Mn-based antiperovskite nitrides identified an extraordinarily large PME in ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}\mathrm{SnN}$ available at room temperature. We explain the magnitude of PME based on features of the electronic structure and show an inverse proportionality between the simulated zero-temperature PME and the magnetovolume effect at the magnetic (N\'eel) transition measured by Takenaka et al. in nine antiferromagnetic ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}\mathrm{AN}$ systems.