Manganese monosilicide (MnSi) is an

intermetallic compound An intermetallic (also called an intermetallic compound, intermetallic alloy, ordered intermetallic alloy, and a long-range-ordered alloy) is a type of metallic bonding, metallic alloy that forms an ordered solid-state Chemical compound, compoun ...

, a

silicide A silicide is a type of chemical compound that combines silicon and a (usually) more electropositive element. Silicon is more electropositive than carbon. Silicides are structurally closer to borides than to carbides. Similar to borides and carb ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

. It occurs in

cosmic dust Cosmic dust, also called extraterrestrial dust, star dust or space dust, is dust which exists in outer space, or has fallen on Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 micrometers). Larger particles are c ...

as the mineral

brownleeite Brownleeite is a silicide mineral with chemical formula MnSi. It was discovered by researchers of the Johnson Space Center in Houston while analyzing the Pi Puppid particle shower of the comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The only other known natural m ...

. MnSi has a cubic crystal lattice with no

inversion center In geometry, a point reflection (point inversion, central inversion, or inversion through a point) is a type of isometry of Euclidean space. An object that is invariant under a point reflection is said to possess point symmetry; if it is invari ...

; therefore its crystal structure is helical, with right-hand and left-hand chiralities. MnSi is a

paramagnetic Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism whereby some materials are weakly attracted by an externally applied magnetic field, and form internal, induced magnetic fields in the direction of the applied magnetic field. In contrast with this behavior, d ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

that turns into a

ferromagnet Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials a ...

at cryogenic temperatures below 29 K. In the ferromagnetic state, the spatial arrangement of electron spins in MnSi changes with magnetic field, forming

helical Helical may refer to: * Helix, the mathematical concept for the shape * Helical engine, a proposed spacecraft propulsion drive * Helical spring, a coilspring * Helical plc, a British property company, once a maker of steel bar stock * Helicoil A t ...

, conical,

skyrmion In particle theory, the skyrmion () is a topologically stable field configuration of a certain class of non-linear sigma models. It was originally proposed as a model of the nucleon by (and named after) Tony Skyrme in 1961. As a topological solito ...

, and regular ferromagnetic phases.

Crystal structure and magnetism

Manganese monosilicide is a

non-stoichiometric compound In chemistry, non-stoichiometric compounds are chemical compounds, almost always solid inorganic compounds, having elemental composition whose proportions cannot be represented by a ratio of small natural numbers (i.e. an empirical formula); m ...

, meaning that the 1:1 Mn:Si composition, lattice constant and many other properties vary depending on the synthesis and processing history of the crystal. MnSi has a cubic crystal lattice with no

; therefore its crystal structure is helical, with right-hand and left-hand chiralities. At low temperatures and magnetic fields, the magnetic structure of MnSi can be described as a stack of ferromagnetically ordered layers lying parallel to the (111) crystallographic planes. The direction of

magnetic moment In electromagnetism, the magnetic moment is the magnetic strength and orientation of a magnet or other object that produces a magnetic field. Examples of objects that have magnetic moments include loops of electric current (such as electromagnets ...

varies from layer to layer by a small angle due to the

antisymmetric exchange In Physics, antisymmetric exchange, also known as the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), is a contribution to the total magnetic exchange interaction between two neighboring magnetic spins, \mathbf_i and \mathbf_j . Quantitatively, it i ...

. Upon cooling to temperatures below T_c = 29 K, MnSi changes from a

into a

ferromagnetic Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials ...

state; the transition temperature T_c decreases with increasing pressure, vanishing at 1.4 GPa. Electron spins in MnSi show dissimilar, yet regular spatial arrangements at different values of applied magnetic field. Those arrangements are named helical,

, conical, and regular ferromagnetic. They can be controlled not only by temperature and magnetic field, but also by

electric current An electric current is a stream of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface or into a control volume. The moving pa ...

, and the current density required for manipulating skyrmions (~10⁶ A/m²) is approximately one million times smaller than that needed for moving

magnetic domain A magnetic domain is a region within a magnetic material in which the magnetization is in a uniform direction. This means that the individual magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned with one another and they point in the same direction. When c ...

s in traditional ferromagnets. As a result, skyrmions in MnSi have potential application in ultrahigh-density

magnetic storage Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is acc ...

devices.

Synthesis

Centimeter-scale single crystals of MnSi can be prepared by direct crystallization from the melt using the Bridgman,

zone melting Zone melting (or zone refining, or floating-zone method, or floating-zone technique) is a group of similar methods of purifying crystals, in which a narrow region of a crystal is melted, and this molten zone is moved along the crystal. The molte ...

Czochralski method The Czochralski method, also Czochralski technique or Czochralski process, is a method of crystal growth used to obtain single crystals of semiconductors (e.g. silicon, germanium and gallium arsenide), metals (e.g. palladium, platinum, silver, ...

References

{{Manganese compounds Manganese compounds Transition metal silicides Iron monosilicide structure type