Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 9: Altermagnets I
MA 9.7: Talk
Monday, March 17, 2025, 16:30–16:45, H20
Fingerprints of altermagnetism in the optical properties of MnTe — •Luca Felipe Haag1, Marius Weber1,2, Jairo Sinova2, and Hans Christian Schneider1 — 1Department of Physics and Research Center OPTIMAS, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany — 2Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
It has recently been demonstrated by magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements that the spin system in planar d-wave altermagnets can be controlled by linearly polarized optical excitation [2] as one can selectively address spin-up or spin-down electrons by choosing the polarization of the optical pulse.
The objective of this study is to investigate whether similar optical effects can be observed in bulk g-wave altermagnets. To this end, we focus on MnTe, which has been demonstrated to be altermagnetic by ARPES measurements [3]. Using ab-initio techniques together with a time-dependent calculation of the absorption process, we study theoretically the optically induced spin polarization for all polarization angles. Our results show an intriguing interplay between the complex nodal-plane structure in bulk g-wave altermagnets and the anisotropic excitation due to the polarized pulses, causing planar d-wave or g-wave signatures depending on the laser’s incident direction.
References:
[1] L. Šmejkal et al., Phys. Rev. X 12, 040501 (2022)
[2] M. Weber et al., arXiv:2408.05187 (2024)
[3] Krempaský et al., Nature 626, 517-522 (2024)
Keywords: ultrafast; optical excitation; spin polarization; altermagnetism; MnTe