PdFe/Ir(111) has attracted tremendous attention for next-generation spintronics devices due to existence of magnetic skyrmions with the external magnetic field. Our density functional theoretical calculations in combination with spin dynamics simulation suggest that the spin spiral phase in fcc stacked PdFe/Ir(111) flips into the skyrmion lattice phase around Bex t ∼ 6 T. This leads to the microscopic understanding of the thermodynamic and kinetic behaviours affected by the intrinsic spin-lattice couplings (SLCs) in this skyrmion material for magneto-mechanical properties. Here we calculate fully relativistic SLC parameters from first principle computations and investigate the effect of SLC on dynamical magnetic interactions in skyrmion multilayers PdFe/Ir(111). The exchange interactions arising from next nearest-neighbors (NN) in this material are highly frustrated and responsible for enhancing skyrmion stability. We report the larger spin-lattice effect on both dynamical Heisenberg exchanges and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions for next NN compared to NN which is in contrast with recently observed spin-lattice effect in bulk bcc Fe and CrI3 monolayer. Based on our analysis, we find that the effective measures of SLCs in fcc (hcp) stacking of PdFe/Ir(111) are ∼ 2.71(∼ 2.36) and ∼ 14.71(∼ 21.89) times stronger for NN and next NN respectively, compared to bcc Fe. The linear regime of displacement for SLC parameters is ≤ 0.02 Å which is 0.72% of the lattice constant for PdFe/Ir(111). The microscopic understanding of SLCs provided by our current study could help in designing spintronic devices based on thermodynamic properties of skyrmion multilayers.

This paper reports the first experimental observation of phonons and their softening on single crystalline LaPt₂Si₂ via inelastic neutron scattering. From the temperature dependence of the phonon frequency in close proximity to the charge density wave (CDW) q-vector, we obtain a CDW transition temperature of T_CDW = 230 K and a critical exponent β = 0.28 ± 0.03. This value is suggestive of a non-conventional critical behavior for the CDW phase transition in LaPt₂Si₂, compatible with a scenario of CDW discommensuration (DC). The DC would be caused by the existence of two CDWs in this material, propagating separately in the non equivalent (Si1–Pt2–Si1) and (Pt1–Si2–Pt1) layers, respectively, with transition temperatures T_CDW−1 = 230 K and T_CDW−2 = 110 K. A strong q-dependence of the electron-phonon coupling has been identified as the driving mechanism for the CDW transition at T_CDW−1 = 230 K while a CDW with 3-dimensional character, and Fermi surface quasi-nesting as a driving mechanism, is suggested for the transition at T_CDW−2 = 110 K. Our results clarify some aspects of the CDW transition in LaPt₂Si₂ which have been so far misinterpreted by both theoretical predictions and experimental observations and give direct insight into its actual temperature dependence.

X-ray absorption and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra of LaPt₂Si₂ single crystal at the Si 2p and La 4d edges are presented. The data are interpreted in terms of density functional theory, showing that the Si spectra can be described in terms of Si s and d local partial density of states (LPDOS), and the La spectra are due to quasi-atomic local 4f excitations. Calculations show that Pt d-LPDOS dominates the occupied states, and a sharp localized La f state is found in the unoccupied states, in line with the observations.

Since thermal fluctuations become more important as dimensions shrink, it is expected that low-dimensional magnets are more sensitive to atomic displacement and phonons than bulk systems are. Here we present a fully relativistic first-principles study on the spin-lattice coupling, i.e., how the magnetic interactions depend on atomic displacement, of the prototypical two-dimensional ferromagnet CrI3. We extract an effective measure of the spin-lattice coupling in CrI3, which is up to ten times larger than what is found for bcc Fe. The magnetic exchange interactions, including Heisenberg and relativistic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, are sensitive both to the in-plane motion of Cr atoms and out-of-plane motion of ligand atoms. We find that significant magnetic pair interactions change sign from ferromagnetic (FM) to antiferromagnetic (AFM) for atomic displacements larger than 0.16 (0.18) Å for Cr (I) atoms. We explain the observed strong spin-lattice coupling by analyzing the orbital decomposition of isotropic exchange interactions, involving different crystal-field-split Cr−3d orbitals. The competition between the AFM t2g−t2g and FM t2g−eg contributions depends on the bond angle formed by Cr and I atoms as well as Cr-Cr distance. In particular, if a Cr atom is displaced, the FM-AFM sign changes when the I-Cr-I bond angle approaches 90∘. The obtained spin-lattice coupling constants, along with the microscopic orbital analysis, can act as a guiding principle for further studies of the thermodynamic properties and combined magnon-phonon excitations in two-dimensional magnets.

Persistent homology (PH) is a relatively new field in applied mathematics that studies the components and shapes of discrete data. In this paper, we demonstrate that PH can be used as a universal framework to identify phases of classical spins on a lattice. This demonstration includes hidden order such as spin-nematic ordering and spin liquids. By converting a small number of spin configurations to barcodes we obtain a descriptive picture of configuration space. Using dimensionality reduction to reduce the barcode space to color space leads to a visualization of the phase diagram.

The Organic Materials Database (OMDB) is an open database hosting about 22 000 electronic band structures, density of states, and other properties for stable and previously synthesized three-dimensional organic crystals. The web interface of the OMDB offers various search tools for the identification of novel functional materials such as band structure pattern matching and density of states similarity search. In this work, the OMDB is extended to include magnetic excitation properties. For inelastic neutron scattering, we focus on the dynamic structure factor S(q, omega) which contains information on the excitation modes of the material. We introduce a new dataset containing atomic magnetic moments and Heisenberg exchange parameters for which we calculate the spin wave spectra and dynamic structure factor with linear spin wave theory and atomistic spin dynamics. We thus develop the materials informatics tools to identify novel functional organic and metalorganic magnets.

We present a computationally efficient and general first-principles based method for spin-lattice simulations for solids and clusters. The method is based on a coupling of atomistic spin dynamics and molecular dynamics simulations, expressed through a spin-lattice Hamiltonian, where the bilinear magnetic term is expanded up to second order in displacement. The effect of first-order spin-lattice coupling on the magnon and phonon dispersion in bcc Fe is reported as an example, and we observe good agreement with previous simulations. We also illustrate the coupled spin-lattice dynamics method on a more conceptual level, by exploring dissipation-free spin and lattice motion of small magnetic clusters (a dimer, trimer, and tetramer). The method discussed here opens the door for a quantitative description and understanding of the microscopic origin of many fundamental phenomena of contemporary interest, such as ultrafast demagnetization, magnetocalorics, and spincaloritronics.

A coupled atomistic spin and lattice dynamics approach is developed which merges the dynamics of these two degrees of freedom into a single set of coupled equations of motion. The underlying microscopic model comprises local exchange interactions between the electron spin and magnetic moment and the local couplings between the electronic charge and lattice displacements. An effective action for the spin and lattice variables is constructed in which the interactions among the spin and lattice components are determined by the underlying electronic structure. In this way, expressions are obtained for the electronically mediated couplings between the spin and lattice degrees of freedom, besides the well known interatomic force constants and spin-spin interactions. These former susceptibilities provide an atomistic ab initio description for the coupled spin and lattice dynamics. It is important to notice that this theory is strictly bilinear in the spin and lattice variables and provides a minimal model for the coupled dynamics of these subsystems and that the two subsystems are treated on the same footing. Questions concerning time-reversal and inversion symmetry are rigorously addressed and it is shown how these aspects are absorbed in the tensor structure of the interaction fields. By means of these results regarding the spin-lattice coupling, simple explanations of ionic dimerization in double-antiferromagnetic materials, as well as charge density waves induced by a nonuniform spin structure, are given. In the final parts, coupled equations of motion for the combined spin and lattice dynamics are constructed, which subsequently can be reduced to a form which is analogous to the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations for spin dynamics and a damped driven mechanical oscillator for the ionic motion. It is important to notice, however, that these equations comprise contributions that couple these descriptions into one unified formulation. Finally, Kubo-like expressions for the discussed exchanges in terms of integrals over the electronic structure and, moreover, analogous expressions for the damping within and between the subsystems are provided. The proposed formalism and types of couplings enable a step forward in the microscopic first principles modeling of coupled spin and lattice quantities in a consistent format.