In-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the van der Waals antiferromagnet FePSe$_3$ probed by magneto-Raman scattering

Abstract

Magnon gap excitations selectively coupled to phonon modes have been studied in FePSe$_3$ layered antiferromagnet with magneto-Raman scattering experiments performed at different temperatures. The bare magnon excitation in this material has been found to be split (by $\approx~1.2$ cm$^{-1}$) into two components each being selectively coupled to one of the two degenerated, nearby phonon modes. Lifting the degeneracy of the fundamental magnon mode points out toward the biaxial character of the FePS$_3$ antiferromagnet, with an additional in-plane anisotropy complementing much stronger, out-of-plane anisotropy. Moreover, the tunability, with temperature, of the phonon- versus the magnon-like character of the observed coupled modes has been demonstrated.