Spin-split collinear antiferromagnets: A large-scale ab-initio study

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Yaqian Guo - , Chair of Solid State Theory, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Hui Liu - , Chair of Solid State Theory, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Oleg Janson - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Ion Cosma Fulga - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Jeroen van den Brink - , Chair of Solid State Theory, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Jorge I. Facio - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (Author)

Abstract

It was recently discovered that, depending on their symmetries, collinear antiferromagnets can actually break the spin degeneracy in momentum space, even in the absence of spin-orbit coupling. Such systems, recently dubbed altermagnets, are signalled by the emergence of a spin-momentum texture set mainly by the crystal and magnetic structure, relativistic effects playing a secondary role. Here we consider all collinear q = 0 antiferromagnetic compounds in the MAGNDATA database allowing for spin-split bands. Based on density-functional calculations for the experimentally reported crystal and magnetic structures, we study more than sixty compounds and introduce numerical measures for the average momentum-space spin splitting. We highlight some compounds that are of particular interest, either due to a relatively large spin splitting, such as CoF2 and FeSO4F, or because of their low-energy electronic structure. The latter include LiFe2F6, which hosts nearly flat spin-split bands next to the Fermi energy, as well as RuO2, CrNb4S8, and CrSb, which are spin-split antiferromagnetic metals.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number100991
JournalMaterials today physics
Volume32
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

Keywords

Keywords

  • Altermagnets, Collinear antiferromagnets, MAGNDATA, Magnetic space group, Spin splitting

Library keywords