Giant Topological Hall Effect and Colossal Magnetoresistance in Heusler Ferromagnet near Room Temperature

Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) is an exotic phenomenon that allows for the efficient magnetic control of electrical resistivity and has attracted significant attention in condensed matter due to its potential for memory and spintronic applications. Heusler alloys are the subject of considerable interest in this context due to the electronic properties that result from the nontrivial band topology. Here, the observation of CMR near room temperature is reported in the shape memory Heusler alloy Ni₂Mn_1.4In_0.6, which is attributed to the combined effects of magnetic field-induced martensite twin variant reorientation (MFIR) and magnetic field-induced structural phase transformation (MFIPT). This compound undergoes a structural phase transition from a cubic (austenite-L2₁) ferromagnetic (FM) to a monoclinic (martensite) antiferromagnetic (AFM), which leads to an effective increase in the size of the Fermi surface and consequently in CMR. Additionally, it exhibits significant anomalous Hall conductivity in both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phases. Furthermore, it demonstrates a giant topological Hall resistivity (THR) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:semantics><mml:msubsup><mml:mi>ρ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>yx</mml:mi> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi></mml:msubsup> <mml:annotation>$\rho _{{\mathrm{yx}}}^{\mathrm{T}}$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> ≈6 µΩ.cm in the vicinity of martensite transition due to the enhanced spin chirality resulting from the formation of magnetic domains with Bloch-type domain walls. The findings contribute to the understanding of the magnetotransport of Ni-Mn-In Heusler alloys, which are prospective candidates for room-temperature spintronic applications.