Electronic signatures of successive itinerant, antiferromagnetic transitions in hexagonal La2Ni7

Abstract

We use high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study the electronic and magnetic properties of La2Ni7, an itinerant magnetic system with a series of three magnetic transition temperatures upon cooling, which end in a weak antiferromagnetic ground state. Our APRES data reveal several electron and hole pockets that have hexagonal symmetry near the Γ point. We observe significant reconstruction of the band structure upon successive magnetic transitions at T 1 ∼ 61 K, T 2 ∼ 57 K and T 3 ∼ 42 K. Several features observed in ARPES data were reasonably well reproduced by DFT calculations, while others were not. In particular, the flat band near E F predicted by DFT in antiferromagnet (AFM) state, was seemingly absent in ARPES data. Our results detail the effects of magnetic ordering on the electronic structure in a Ni-based weak AFM and highlight challenges of current computational methods.