📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

A pressure-induced insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) has recently been discovered in the nodal-line ferrimagnet Mn$_3$Si$_2$Te$_6$. The electronic phase transition is accompanied by anomalies in the magnetic ordering temperature and the anomalous Hall conductivity, which peak at or near the critical pressure of the IMT. We perform density functional theory (DFT) calculations as a function of pressure to reveal the driving factors behind the IMT and the magnetic anomalies in Mn$_3$Si$_2$Te$_6$. We extract Heisenberg Hamiltonians as a function of pressure based on our DFT calculations. Our classical Monte Carlo simulations for these Hamiltonians yield ordering temperatures and magnetic ordering patterns, in agreement with the experimental data. Although we can accurately explain the evolution of magnetism with pressure, it seems that the anomalous Hall conductivity in Mn$_3$Si$_2$Te$_6$ cannot be accounted for by intrinsic contributions alone.