Existence of complex magnetic ground state and topological Hall effect in centrosymmetric silicide DyScSi

Abstract

Topological Hall effect (THE) originating from non-trivial spin arrangements in magnetic materials has been extensively investigated in recent years. In this context, a centrosymmetric ternary silicide, DyScSi, is explored. Here we show that, a complex magnetic ground state drives THE in a centrosymmetric system. Temperature dependent magnetisation and neutron diffraction results establish the presence of commensurate antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase around 92 K, followed by an incommensurate AFM phase below 40 K. Additionally, two cluster glass transitions near 20 and 8 K, are also noted. These observed features arise due competing AFM and FM interactions. In conjunction with this, a finite contribution of THE is also observed in the intermediate field regime (8–30 kOe), at low temperature in DyScSi. The behaviour of this silicide appears to be fascinating in terms of interplay between complex magnetic ground state and THE in centrosymmetric structure.