X-ray magnetic circular dichroism in altermagnetic α-MnTe

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.176701

Authors: A. Hariki (Osaka Metropolitan University) , A. Dal Din (University of Nottingham) , O. j. Amin (University of Nottingham) , T. Yamaguchi (Osaka Metropolitan University) , A. Badura (Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences) , D. Kriegner (Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences) , K. W. Edmonds (University of Nottingham) , R. p. Campion (University of Nottingham) , P. Wadley (University of Nottingham) , D. Backes (Diamond Light Source) , L. S. I. Veiga (Diamond Light Source) , S. S. Dhesi (Diamond Light Source) , G. Springholz (Johannes Kepler University Linz) , L. Šmejkal (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz; Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences) , K. Výborný (Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences) , T. Jungwirth (Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences; University of Nottingham) , J. Kuneš (TU Wien; Masaryk University)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review Letters , VOL 132

State: Published (Approved)
Published: April 2024
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 33456 , 36317

Abstract: Altermagnetism is a recently identified magnetic symmetry class combining characteristics of conventional collinear ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, that were regarded as mutually exclusive, and enabling phenomena and functionalities unparalleled in either of the two traditional elementary magnetic classes. In this work we use symmetry, ab initio theory, and experiments to explore x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) in the altermagnetic class. As a representative material for our XMCD study we choose α -MnTe with compensated antiparallel magnetic order in which an anomalous Hall effect has been already demonstrated. We predict and experimentally confirm a characteristic XMCD line shape for compensated moments lying in a plane perpendicular to the light propagation vector. Our results highlight the distinct phenomenology in altermagnets of this time-reversal symmetry breaking response, and its potential utility for element-specific spectroscopy and microscopy.

Journal Keywords: Spin-orbit coupling; Antiferromagnets; Dynamical mean field theory; X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Diamond Keywords: Antiferromagnetism

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I06-Nanoscience (XPEEM)

Added On: 25/04/2024 10:31

Discipline Tags:

Physics Hard condensed matter - structures Magnetism Materials Science

Technical Tags:

Spectroscopy Circular Dichroism (CD) X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD)