Extraordinary phase transition revealed in a van der Waals antiferromagnet.

ABSTRACT: While the surface-bulk correspondence has been ubiquitously shown in topological phases, the relationship between surface and bulk in Landau-like phases is much less explored. Theoretical investigations since 1970s for semi-infinite systems have predicted the possibility of the surface order emerging at a higher temperature than the bulk, clearly illustrating a counterintuitive situation and greatly enriching phase transitions. But experimental realizations of this prediction remain missing. Here, we demonstrate the higher-temperature surface and lower-temperature bulk phase transitions in CrSBr, a van der Waals (vdW) layered antiferromagnet. We leverage the surface sensitivity of electric dipole second harmonic generation (SHG) to resolve surface magnetism, the bulk nature of electric qua

SUBMITTER: Guo X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11291737 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature