Emergent noncoplanar spin chirality through magnetic and nonmagnetic substitution in the kagome antiferromagnet Mn3Sn

Abstract

Controlling noncoplanar spin textures in centrosymmetric magnets remains a central challenge for realizing emergent Berry-phase phenomena. Here, we demonstrate that magnetic (Cr) and nonmagnetic (Cu) substitution at the Mn site provide distinct routes to engineer spin chirality and topological transport in the kagome antiferromagnet Mn$_3$Sn. Cr substitution enhances low-temperature spin canting, stabilizing a dense noncoplanar texture that yields a pronounced topological Hall effect (THE) at low temperatures. In contrast, Cu substitution drives a spin-reorientation transition accompanied by an easy-axis rotation, creating a broad temperature window (150--208 K) where competing magnetic anisotropies stabilize noncoplanar spin textures and generate a large THE. A concurrent carrier-type crossover signals an underlying electronic-structure reconstruction. These results reveal that exchange enhancement and exchange dilution represent two fundamentally different pathways for tuning real-space Berry curvature, establishing chemical substitution as a powerful strategy for engineering topological transport in kagome antiferromagnets.