Sujeet Chaudhary

Magnetic topological materials exhibit unconventional transport arising from the interplay between exchange‐driven symmetry breaking and band topology. Beyond the point‐like singularities of Weyl and Dirac fermions, extended degeneracies such as nodal surfaces and flat bands constitute an emerging frontier whose impact on Berry‐curvature‐mediated transport remains largely unexplored. Here, the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) is investigated in epitaxial thin films of the Weyl nodal‐line ferromagnet Fe ₅ Si ₃ . A pronounced transverse Nernst response of ∼1.50 µV K ⁻¹ is observed at room‐temperature, accompanied by a giant anomalous Nernst angle of ∼0.56, indicating highly efficient entropy‐to‐charge conversion. The ANE follows a robust − TlnT scaling over a wide temperature range, supporting its intrinsic Berry‐curvature origin. A substantial topological Nernst signal of ∼0.43 µV K ⁻¹ persisting above room‐temperature is consistent with a possible contribution from real‐space Berry‐curvature linked to nontrivial spin textures. First‐principles calculations and symmetry analysis reveal Weyl nodal lines, spin‐orbit coupling (SOC) gapped nodal surfaces, and nearly flat bands near the Fermi level. The close agreement between calculated and measured anomalous Nernst conductivity supports an intrinsic origin, with these features providing a plausible electronic framework for the strongly energy‐dependent Berry‐curvature. These results establish Fe ₅ Si ₃ as a low‐cost binary topological magnet for Berry‐curvature‐driven thermoelectric phenomena.

Magnetic topological materials such as Weyl and Dirac magnets exhibit unconventional electronic properties arising from the interplay between magnetic order and band topology, leading to remarkable thermomagnetic and thermoelectric effects. Here, we investigate the ANE in epitaxial thin films of the Weyl ferromagnet candidate Fe5Si3. A pronounced transverse Nernst response exceeding approximately 1.50 microvolt per kelvin is observed at room temperature, together with a giant anomalous Nernst angle of about 0.56, indicating highly efficient conversion between thermal gradients and transverse electric fields. Beyond the anomalous contribution, a sizable topological Nernst signal of approximately 0.43 microvolt per kelvin persists above room temperature, suggesting the possible presence of real-space Berry curvature associated with nontrivial spin textures. First-principles density functional theory calculations combined with symmetry analysis reveal an unconventional electronic structure in which Weyl nodal lines, nodal surfaces, and nearly flat bands coexist near the Fermi level. This rare concurrence of multiple topological band features produces a strongly enhanced and sharply energy-dependent Berry curvature, which governs both the magnitude and temperature evolution of the observed Nernst response. The close quantitative agreement between calculated anomalous Nernst conductivity and experimental results establishes the topological electronic structure as the dominant origin of the observed thermomagnetic transport, highlighting Fe5Si3 as a chemically simple, low-cost binary topological magnet for exploring both real-space and momentum-space Berry-curvature-driven thermoelectric phenomena.

The interplay between real and reciprocal space topology yields intrinsically linked transport phenomena in magnetic Weyl systems, wherein the broken time-reversal symmetry, strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, and pronounced uniaxial anisotropy stabilize the momentum-space Berry-curvature monopoles (Weyl nodes) and real-space chiral spin textures. We present a combined first-principles and experimental study of epitaxial Fe5Si3 thin films, establishing them as a magnetic Weyl nodal-line material. First-principles Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations unambiguously reveal that Fe5Si3 hosts a topologically nontrivial electronic structure containing six pairs of Weyl nodes at or near the Fermi level, accompanied by pronounced Berry curvature at high-symmetry points of the Brillouin Zone. High-quality epitaxial films exhibit robust ferromagnetism with a Curie temperature of ~370 K and strong magneto crystalline anisotropy. The magneto transport measurements on epitaxial films reveal the corresponding Berry curvature-driven responses, including a significantly large intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity of 504 S/cm and a high anomalous Hall angle of 5.5%, which is in good agreement with DFT calculations. A negative and non-saturating longitudinal magnetoresistance is observed, consistent with a chiral-anomaly contribution from Weyl fermions near the Fermi level (EF). Furthermore, a substantial topological Hall resistivity of 1.6 μΩ cm robust across a wide temperature range, indicating the possibility of robust chiral spin textures in the thin-film geometry. These combined theoretical and experimental results establish Fe5Si3 as a unique, low-cost, centrosymmetric magnetic Weyl nodal-line material, providing a versatile platform for exploring coupled real and reciprocal space topologies in topological spintronic applications.

The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of (100)-oriented Co$_{2}$MnAl/MgO and Co$_{2}$MnAl/GaAs heterostructures are investigated using plane-wave pseudopotential density functional theory. For the Co$_{2}$MnAl/MgO, CoCo-MgMg, CoCo-OO, MnAl-MgMg, and MnAl-OO interfaces in top-to-top configurations are studied, while for Co$_{2}$MnAl/GaAs, both top-to-top (Co-Ga, Co-As, Mn-Ga, Mn-As, Al-Ga, Al-As) and bridge-site (CoCo-Ga, CoCo-As, MnAl-Ga, MnAl-As) interfaces are considered. The interfacial geometries featuring Co- or CoCo-atomic terminations for the Co2MnAl slab exhibit larger adhesion energies compared to those terminated with Mn-, Al-, or MnAl-atomic terminations. This indicates their greater interfacial stability. In contrast, MnAl-, Mn-, or Al-terminated interfaces preserve near half-metallicity, whereas Co- and CoCo-terminated geometries display a strongly metallic character. All studied interfaces show enhanced magnetic moments relative to their bulk counterparts, primarily arising from interfacial atoms and their nearest neighbours. These findings offer valuable insights for optimizing Co2MnAl-based heterostructures in spintronic applications.

Using the plane-wave pseudopotential method within the framework of density functional theory, Co2MnAl (100), (110), and (111) surfaces with different atomic terminations have been studied in the context of some key spintronics properties, viz., surface energy, half-metallicity, magnetization, and magnetic anisotropy. The present study reveals that the MnAl-(100), Co-Al-(111), and Al-(111) surfaces exhibit negative surface energies over a wide range of chemical potentials, indicating their strong structural stability. The MnAl-(100), CoCoMnAl-(110), and Co-Mn-(111) surfaces maintain the nearly half-metallic nature like the bulk-Co2MnAl, while this nearly half-metallic nature even improved for the Al-(111) surface. In contrast, the rest of the considered surfaces – CoCo-(100), Co-Al-(111) and Mn-(111) surfaces – display the strong metallic nature. Magnetization is enhanced for most surface configurations, except for Al-(111), where it decreases due to reduced moments of the exterior atoms. Regarding magnetic anisotropy, only the MnAl-(100) and Co-Mn-(111) surfaces exhibit the positive magneto-crystalline anisotropy of ~0.23 and ~0.33 mJ/m2, respectively. All these findings suggest that the Co-Mn-(111) and MnAl-(100) surfaces are quite appealing for spintronics applications, considering the structural stability, electronic properties, and magnetic anisotropy.

Using the plane-wave pseudopotential method within the framework of density functional theory, Co$_2$MnAl (100), (110), and (111) surfaces with different atomic terminations have been studied in the context of some key spintronics properties, viz., surface energy, half-metallicity, magnetization, and magnetic anisotropy. The present study reveals that the MnAl-(100), Co-Al-(111), and Al-(111) surfaces exhibit negative surface energies over a wide range of chemical potentials, indicating their strong structural stability. The MnAl-(100), CoCoMnAl-(110), and Co-Mn-(111) surfaces maintain the nearly half-metallic nature like the bulk-Co$_2$MnAl, while this nearly half-metallic nature even improved for the Al-(111) surface. In contrast, the rest of the considered surfaces, CoCo-(100), Co-Al-(111) and Mn-(111) surfaces, display the strong metallic nature. Magnetization is enhanced for most surface configurations, except for Al-(111), where it decreases due to reduced moments of the exterior atoms. Regarding magnetic anisotropy, only the MnAl-(100) and Co-Mn-(111) surfaces exhibit the positive magneto-crystalline anisotropy of $\sim$0.23 and $\sim$0.33 mJ/m2, respectively. All these findings suggest that the Co-Mn-(111) and MnAl-(100) surfaces are quite appealing for spintronics applications, considering the structural stability, electronic properties, and magnetic anisotropy.