Fermi Surface Nesting Driving the RKKY Interaction in the Centrosymmetric Skyrmion Magnet Gd2PdSi3

Abstract

The magnetic skyrmions generated in a centrosymmetric crystal were recently first discovered in Gd2PdSi3. In light of this, we observe the electronic structure by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and unveil its direct relationship with the magnetism in this compound. The Fermi surface and band dispersions are demonstrated to have a good agreement with the density functional theory (DFT) calculations carried out with careful consideration of the crystal superstructure. Most importantly, we find that the three-dimensional Fermi surface has extended nesting which matches well the q-vector of the magnetic order detected by recent scattering measurements. The consistency we find among ARPES, DFT, and the scattering measurements suggests the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction involving itinerant electrons to be the formation mechanism of skyrmions in Gd2PdSi3.