Quasi-static remanence as a generic-feature of spin-canting in Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction driven canted-antiferromagnets

Abstract

We consistently observe a unique pattern in remanence in a number of canted-antiferromagnets (AFM) and piezomagnets. A part of the remanence is $\textit{quasi-static}$ in nature and vanishes above a critical magnetic field. Present work is devoted to exploring this $\textit{quasi-static}$ remanence ($\mu$) in a series of isostructural canted-AFMs and piezomagnets that possess progressively increasing N\'eel temperature ($T{_N}$). Comprehensive investigation of remanence as a function of $\textit{magnetic-field}$ and $\textit{time}$ in CoCO$_{3}$, NiCO$_{3}$ and MnCO$_{3}$ reveals that the magnitude of $\mu$ increases with decreasing $T{_N}$, but the stability with time is higher in the samples with higher $T{_N}$. Further to this, all three carbonates exhibit a universal scaling in $\mu$, which relates to the concurrent phenomenon of piezomagnetism. Overall, these data not only establish that the observation of $\textit{quasi-static}$ remanence with $\textit{counter-intuitive}$ magnetic-field dependence can serve as a foot-print for spin-canted systems, but also confirms that simple remanence measurements, using SQUID magnetometry, can provide insights about the extent of spin canting - a non trivial parameter to determine. In addition, these data suggest that the functional form of $\mu$ with $\textit{magnetic-field}$ and $\textit{time}$ may hold key to isolate Dzyaloshinskii Moriya Interaction driven spin-canted systems from Single Ion Anisotropy driven ones. We also demonstrate the existence of $\mu$ by tracking specific peaks in neutron diffraction data, acquired in remnant state in CoCO$_{3}$.