Speaker
Description
Spin- and orbital-resolved access to the electronic bands is necessary to establish key properties of quantum materials such as the quantum-geometric tensor. Despite the recent revival of interest in magnetic Kagome compounds, no spectroscopic access to their magnetic properties has been available so far due to small domain sizes and the lack of appropriate techniques. Furthermore, their real-space magnetic texture is often complex and temperature-dependent.
We investigate the magnetic Kagome metal DyMn$_6$Sn$_6$ using high-resolution micro-focused circular-dichroic angle-resolved photoemission ($\mu$-CD-ARPES) to probe its magnetic and electronic properties. By tuning the kinetic energy to various features of the Dy $4f$ multiplet, we resolve magnetic domains in samples cryo-cooled down to 20 K. Smaller, but clear, signatures are also detected in the Mn $3p$ levels. The behavior of both Dy $4f$ and Mn $3p$ features is in remarkable agreement with our modeling based on the Hartree–Fock method, revealing ferrimagnetic alignment of Dy and Mn local moments and further strengthening our interpretation. Adjusting the energy to the Mn $3d$-dominated valence bands reveals signatures that we relate to the orbital magnetization through comparison with ab initio electronic structure calculations. Our study establishes spectroscopic access to a single magnetic domain in a Kagome metal and demonstrates $\mu$-CD-ARPES as a direct probe of magnetic domain properties, opening the way for spatially resolved studies of complex magnetic phases in quantum materials.
Reference: arXiv:2507.12085 (2025); accepted for publication in Nature Communications.