Mystery of the 175 cm$^{-1}$ Raman Mode in MnTe Altermagnet
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866912912663117824 |
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| author | Thapa, Bishal Belashchenko, K. D. Mazin, Igor I. |
| author_facet | Thapa, Bishal Belashchenko, K. D. Mazin, Igor I. |
| contents | MnTe has recently attracted exceptional attention due to its well-established altermagnetism, prompting a thorough reexamination of its properties. In particular, it was found that a Raman-active excitation at ~175 cm$^{-1}$, routinely assigned to the E2g phonon, is incompatible with this interpretation. It was further hypothesized that this mode is a "leakage", due to symmetry lowering, of an otherwise forbidden phonon. Here, using first-principles calculations, we decisively rule out this hypothesis and propose an alternative interpretation that the "mystery mode" is an electronic excitation, i.e., a plasmon, enabled by hole self-doping. The resolution of this mystery will require additional experiments and shed new light on the nature of electronic transport in MnTe. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_13065 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Mystery of the 175 cm$^{-1}$ Raman Mode in MnTe Altermagnet Thapa, Bishal Belashchenko, K. D. Mazin, Igor I. Materials Science MnTe has recently attracted exceptional attention due to its well-established altermagnetism, prompting a thorough reexamination of its properties. In particular, it was found that a Raman-active excitation at ~175 cm$^{-1}$, routinely assigned to the E2g phonon, is incompatible with this interpretation. It was further hypothesized that this mode is a "leakage", due to symmetry lowering, of an otherwise forbidden phonon. Here, using first-principles calculations, we decisively rule out this hypothesis and propose an alternative interpretation that the "mystery mode" is an electronic excitation, i.e., a plasmon, enabled by hole self-doping. The resolution of this mystery will require additional experiments and shed new light on the nature of electronic transport in MnTe. |
| title | Mystery of the 175 cm$^{-1}$ Raman Mode in MnTe Altermagnet |
| topic | Materials Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13065 |