Coexistence of anomalous Hall effect and weak magnetization in a nominally collinear antiferromagnet MnTe

In various material systems, an antiferromagnetic phase was found to coexist with a weak ferromagneticlike signal, while symmetry-based theoretical predictions indicate a possibility of a nonzero anomalous Hall effect (AHE) even in the absence of sample magnetization. This is the case of nominally collinear antiferromagnets, in particular, hexagonal MnTe, where the AHE and no detectable magnetization have been recently reported. To clarify the role of magnetization, we present a study of bulk MnTe samples, combining experiment and theory. We demonstrate that the existence of the AHE in the hexagonal MnTe is accompanied by the presence of a weak but detectable ferromagneticlike signal, vanishing at the Néel temperature. In contrast to thin layer samples, we find that the AHE hysteresis loop shows an opposite sign and Barkhausen-like jumps. We introduce a macrospin model involving the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya type interaction, which explains the existence of a nonzero magnetic moment in the absence of external field and reproduces well hysteretic behavior of the AHE. Using analysis of Néel-vector-dependent Berry curvature, we show that the intrinsic AHE in hexagonal MnTe can be nonzero even when the magnetization vanishes and, also, that it changes sign depending on the Fermi energy position. Published by the American Physical Society 2024