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Data-driven design of B20 alloys with targeted magnetic properties guided by machine learning and density functional theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2020

Prasanna V. Balachandran*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: pvb5e@virginia.edu

Abstract

Chiral magnets in the B20 crystal structure host a peculiar spin texture in the form of a topologically stable skyrmion lattice. However, the helical transition temperature (TC) of these compounds is below room temperature, which limits their potential in spintronics applications. Here, a data-driven approach is demonstrated, which integrates density functional theory (DFT) calculations with machine learning (ML) in search of alloying elements that will enhance the TC of known B20 compounds. Initial DFT screening led to the identification of chromium (Cr) and tin (Sn) as potential substituents for alloy design. Then, trained ML models predict Sn substitution to be more promising than Cr-substitution for tuning the TC of FeGe. The magnetic exchange energy calculated from DFT validates the promise of Sn as an effective alloying element for enhancing the TC in Fe(Ge,Sn) compounds. New B20 chiral magnets are recommended for experimental investigation.

Information

Type
Invited Feature Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2020
Figure 0

Figure 1: A summary of experimentally determined helical period in nanometer (x-axis) and helical transition temperature in K (TC, y-axis) of bulk B20 alloys taken from the published literature [11]. None of the known B20 alloys satisfy the combined requirement of smaller helical period (<50 nm) and higher TC (>300 K) for practical spintronics applications, which is denoted as “Target” in the figure. In this study, the focus is on the computational design of new B20 alloys that have TC > 300 K.

Figure 1

Figure 2: The overarching strategy for accelerating the search for new B20 alloy compositions with improved TC is shown. The initial screening step involves running spin-polarized DFT calculations on the chosen chemical space of 36 AB compounds in the constrained bulk B20 crystal structure, where A is the transition metal atom and B is Si, Ge, or Sn. Out of 36 AB compounds, only 7 converged in the magnetic structure, which is a necessary condition for stabilizing a skyrmion phase in B20 compounds. From the seven downselected compounds, two promising alloying elements were identified, namely Cr and Sn, which had not been explored in the literature. ML models were used to establish a relationship between descriptors that represent the compositions of experimentally known B20 and their measured TC values. The trained models were, in turn, used to predict the potential of Cr- and Sn-substituted B20 alloys in the affecting the TC property. ML models identified Sn as a candidate to improve the TC of B20 alloys. The data-driven predictions were validated using DFT calculations, where the magnetic exchange energy was calculated using a supercell approach. Promising and previously unexplored B20 alloy compositions were identified and are recommended for experimental validation.

Figure 2

TABLE I: List of seven AB compounds in the B20 crystal structure with non-zero A-site atomic magnetic moment. The DFT optimized lattice constant (in Å) and the atomic magnetic moment of the transition metal site (in µB) data are also given.

Figure 3

TABLE II: List of descriptors that were considered for the ML work to establish a relationship between TC and chemical compositions of B20 alloys. Descriptors highlighted in bold were used for building the final ensemble of ML models.

Figure 4

TABLE III: Compositions used for training and testing the SVR models. The experimental and ML predicted TC's, along with the uncertainties (σ), are also given. The chemical space includes both line compounds and solid solutions.

Figure 5

Figure 3: The performance of trained ML models on the dataset where the measured and ML predicted TC values are shown in x- and y-axis, respectively. The in-sample points are shown as black circles and the test compound (Mn0.75Rh0.25Ge [37]) is depicted as magenta diamond. The dashed red line indicates the x = y line, where the measured and predicted values are exactly the same. The error bars indicate the standard deviation from the prediction of an ensemble of 100 ML models.

Figure 6

TABLE IV: The predictions of TC (in K) from trained ML models and the magnetic exchange energy, ΔE (in meV), from DFT, as described by the Heisenberg Hamiltonian for the promising new alloys. Positive values of ΔE suggest that the ferromagnetic spin states are lower in energy than the antiferromagnetic spin states. The experimentally measured TC values for MnSi and FeGe are 30 and 278 K, respectively.