Giant topological Hall effect around room temperature in noncollinear ferromagnet NdMn2Ge2 single crystal

Abstract

We report the observation of the giant topological Hall effect near room temperature in a complex noncollinear ferromagnet NdMn2Ge2 single crystal. Three successive magnetic transitions are observed below 400 K, including a spin reorientation transition at TSR = 215 K. The complex noncollinear magnetic structures give rise to anomalous transport behaviors. When the current flows along the a axis and the magnetic field is applied along the c axis, the anomalous Hall effect is observed, which is found to be dominated by the skew scattering mechanism. Strikingly, a giant topological Hall effect appears in a wide temperature range, which stems from the noncollinear spin configuration with finite scalar spin chirality. The topological Hall resistivity reaches the maximum of −1.35 μΩ cm at 300 K and drops slightly with temperature until below TSR. These results suggest that the NdMn2Ge2 single crystal would be a promising topological material for spintronic applications at room temperature.