Neutron scattering study on an antiferromagnetic Mn5Si3 thin film: checkerboard-ordered?

The spin splitting in energy bands is usually attributed to ferromagnetism or to a relativistic spin-orbit interaction. We recently predicted a third fundamental flavour of spin splitting in collinear antiferromagnets. This novel antiferromagnetic spin splitting was experimentally observed in Mn5Si3 thin films on Si(111) substrates. The substrate appears to stabilise a previously unreported magnetic order of Mn5Si3. The spontaneous anomalous Hall effect is present in these molecular beam epitaxy prepared films, which suggests the presence of spin splitting. The direct observation of the magnetic order in Mn5Si3 films is therefore important to support the current theory and we propose to study a Mn5Si3 epilayer. We aim to reveal the Mn5Si3 thin film magnetic structure and establish Mn5Si3 as a model material for antiferromagnetic spin splitting research.