Large Exchange Magnetostriction in a Kagome Antiferromagnet at Room Temperature
Abstract
The pursuit of high-performance magnetostrictive materials is crucial for advancing technologies in sensing, actuation, and microelectromechanical systems. Although pronounced magnetostrictive effects have been observed in a few ferromagnets, a systematic exploration of magnetostriction across a broader range of antiferromagnets remains limited. Here, we report the observation of large magnetostriction in the kagome antiferromagnet YMn6Sn6. Under a magnetic field, the system undergoes a field-induced evolution from a helical magnetic ground state toward a collinear field-polarized state, accompanied by a large anisotropic lattice strain and a substantial volume magnetostriction exceeding 400 ppm at room temperature. Remarkably, the magnetostrictive response remains nearly fully reversible up to 9 T with nearly hysteresis-free behavior, effectively minimizing the energy dissipation commonly associated with domain-wall pinning. Combined experimental measurements and theoretical calculations reveal that the large, nearly hysteresis-free magnetostriction originates from the competition between intralayer ferromagnetic and interlayer exchange interactions. This exchange-driven magnetoelastic coupling further gives rise to a strongly direction-dependent lattice distortion pathway. This work establishes kagome helimagnets as a tunable platform for low-dissipation magnetoelastic functionalities and responsive magnetomechanical applications.
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BibTeX
@misc{du2026large,
title = {{Large Exchange Magnetostriction in a Kagome Antiferromagnet at Room Temperature}},
author = {Jie Du and Liang Yao and Hang Li and Xiaodong Zhou and Yuan Yao and Xuekui Xi and Yong-Chang Lau and Wenhong Wang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.00887},
eprint = {2609.00887},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00887},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Large Exchange Magnetostriction in a Kagome Antiferromagnet at Room Temperature
AU - Jie Du
AU - Liang Yao
AU - Hang Li
AU - Xiaodong Zhou
AU - Yuan Yao
AU - Xuekui Xi
AU - Yong-Chang Lau
AU - Wenhong Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.00887
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00887
AB - The pursuit of high-performance magnetostrictive materials is crucial for advancing technologies in sensing, actuation, and microelectromechanical systems. Although pronounced magnetostrictive effects have been observed in a few ferromagnets, a systematic exploration of magnetostriction across a broader range of antiferromagnets remains limited. Here, we report the observation of large magnetostriction in the kagome antiferromagnet YMn6Sn6. Under a magnetic field, the system undergoes a field-induced evolution from a helical magnetic ground state toward a collinear field-polarized state, accompanied by a large anisotropic lattice strain and a substantial volume magnetostriction exceeding 400 ppm at room temperature. Remarkably, the magnetostrictive response remains nearly fully reversible up to 9 T with nearly hysteresis-free behavior, effectively minimizing the energy dissipation commonly associated with domain-wall pinning. Combined experimental measurements and theoretical calculations reveal that the large, nearly hysteresis-free magnetostriction originates from the competition between intralayer ferromagnetic and interlayer exchange interactions. This exchange-driven magnetoelastic coupling further gives rise to a strongly direction-dependent lattice distortion pathway. This work establishes kagome helimagnets as a tunable platform for low-dissipation magnetoelastic functionalities and responsive magnetomechanical applications.
ER -