Paper detail

Ground state magnetic structure of Mn$_3$Ge

We have used spherical neutron polarimetry to investigate the magnetic structure of the Mn spins in the hexagonal semimetal Mn$_3$Ge, which exhibits a large intrinsic anomalous Hall effect. Our analysis of the polarimetric data finds a strong preference for a spin structure with $E_{1g}$ symmetry relative to the $D_{6h}$ point group. We show that weak ferromagnetism is an inevitable consequence of the symmetry of the observed magnetic structure, and that sixth order anisotropy is needed to select a unique ground state.