Altermagnetic and dipolar splitting of magnons in FeF$_2$
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866915715401908224 |
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| author | Sears, J. Garlea, V. O. Lederman, D. Tranquada, J. M. Zaliznyak, I. A. |
| author_facet | Sears, J. Garlea, V. O. Lederman, D. Tranquada, J. M. Zaliznyak, I. A. |
| contents | FeF$_2$ is a prototypical rutile antiferromagnet recently proposed as an altermagnet, with a magnetic symmetry that permits spin-split electronic bands and chiral magnons. Using very-high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering on a single crystal of FeF$_2$, we show that the dominant source of magnon splitting is in fact the long-range dipolar interaction rather than altermagnetic exchange terms. At momenta where the dipolar splitting vanishes, we observe additional broadening due to altermagnetic chiral splitting and estimate this splitting to be $\sim$35 $μ$eV. Polarized measurements further reveal that, where dipolar splitting is present, the chiral magnon modes become mixed and the resulting modes are predominantly linearly polarized, with at most a small chiral component. These findings highlight the significant effect of dipolar interactions on magnon chirality, particularly when altermagnetic interactions are weak. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_04303 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Altermagnetic and dipolar splitting of magnons in FeF$_2$ Sears, J. Garlea, V. O. Lederman, D. Tranquada, J. M. Zaliznyak, I. A. Strongly Correlated Electrons FeF$_2$ is a prototypical rutile antiferromagnet recently proposed as an altermagnet, with a magnetic symmetry that permits spin-split electronic bands and chiral magnons. Using very-high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering on a single crystal of FeF$_2$, we show that the dominant source of magnon splitting is in fact the long-range dipolar interaction rather than altermagnetic exchange terms. At momenta where the dipolar splitting vanishes, we observe additional broadening due to altermagnetic chiral splitting and estimate this splitting to be $\sim$35 $μ$eV. Polarized measurements further reveal that, where dipolar splitting is present, the chiral magnon modes become mixed and the resulting modes are predominantly linearly polarized, with at most a small chiral component. These findings highlight the significant effect of dipolar interactions on magnon chirality, particularly when altermagnetic interactions are weak. |
| title | Altermagnetic and dipolar splitting of magnons in FeF$_2$ |
| topic | Strongly Correlated Electrons |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04303 |