Frustrated Magnetic Cycloidal Structure and Emergent Potts Nematicity in CaMn$_2$P$_2$

Abstract

We report neutron-diffraction results on single-crystal CaMn$_2$P$_2$ containing corrugated Mn honeycomb layers and determine its ground-state magnetic structure. The diffraction patterns consist of prominent (1/6, 1/6, $L$) reciprocal lattice unit (r.l.u.; $L$ = integer) magnetic Bragg reflections, whose temperature-dependent intensities are consistent with a first-order antiferromagnetic phase transition at the N\'eel temperature $T_{\rm N} = 70(1)$ K. Our analysis of the diffraction patterns reveals an in-plane $6\times6$ magnetic unit cell with ordered spins that in the principal-axis directions rotate by 60-degree steps between nearest neighbors on each sublattice that forms the honeycomb structure, consistent with the $P_Ac$ magnetic space group. We find that a few other magnetic subgroup symmetries ($P_A2/c$, $P_C2/m$, $P_S\bar{1}, P_C2, P_Cm, P_S1$) of the paramagnetic $P\bar{3}m11^\prime$ crystal symmetry are consistent with the observed diffraction pattern. We relate our findings to frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ Heisenberg honeycomb antiferromagnets with single-ion anisotropy and the emergence of Potts nematicity