Néel Vector Induced Manipulation of Valence States in the Collinear Antiferromagnet Mn₂Au

Abstract

The coupling of real and momentum space is utilized to tailor electronic properties of the collinear metallic antiferromagnet Mn₂Au by aligning the real space Néel vector indicating the direction of the staggered magnetization. Pulsed magnetic fields of 60 T were used to orient the sublattice magnetizations of capped epitaxial Mn₂Au(001) thin films perpendicular to the applied field direction by a spin-flop transition. The electronic structure and its corresponding changes were investigated by angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with photon energies in the vacuum-ultraviolet, soft, and hard X-ray range. The results reveal an energetic rearrangement of conduction electrons propagating perpendicular to the Néel vector. They confirm previous predictions on the origin of the Néel spin-orbit torque and anisotropic magnetoresistance in Mn₂Au and reflect the combined antiferromagnetic and spin-orbit interaction in this compound leading to inversion symmetry breaking.