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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26281 |
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| _version_ | 1866910078153523200 |
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| author | Blatter, Gastón Zhang, Xiao Brink, Jeroen van den Hu, Mengli Zhang, Shu |
| author_facet | Blatter, Gastón Zhang, Xiao Brink, Jeroen van den Hu, Mengli Zhang, Shu |
| contents | Controlling physical responses through symmetry breaking is a central paradigm in quantum materials, enabling novel functionalities. Here we determine the effects of spin-group-symmetry breaking on nonlinear optical responses of collinear altermagnetic insulators. Using shear strain as an example, we show that the direction of symmetry-breaking induced components of charge and spin photocurrents are locked to the sign of the strain. In the absence of spin-orbit coupling, this effect is intuitively captured by the spin-gap asymmetry--an imbalance between spin-up and spin-down direct band gaps which couples trilinearly with the Néel order and the strain. We demonstrate this mechanism with density functional theory calculations on the recently proposed altermagnet CuWP$_2$S$_6$. Having symmetry-guided control of both charge and spin photocurrents allows, vice versa, to reveal and investigate altermagnetism in insulating materials by exploration of their optical responses. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_26281 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Sign control of photocurrents by spin-group-symmetry breaking in altermagnetic insulators Blatter, Gastón Zhang, Xiao Brink, Jeroen van den Hu, Mengli Zhang, Shu Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Materials Science Controlling physical responses through symmetry breaking is a central paradigm in quantum materials, enabling novel functionalities. Here we determine the effects of spin-group-symmetry breaking on nonlinear optical responses of collinear altermagnetic insulators. Using shear strain as an example, we show that the direction of symmetry-breaking induced components of charge and spin photocurrents are locked to the sign of the strain. In the absence of spin-orbit coupling, this effect is intuitively captured by the spin-gap asymmetry--an imbalance between spin-up and spin-down direct band gaps which couples trilinearly with the Néel order and the strain. We demonstrate this mechanism with density functional theory calculations on the recently proposed altermagnet CuWP$_2$S$_6$. Having symmetry-guided control of both charge and spin photocurrents allows, vice versa, to reveal and investigate altermagnetism in insulating materials by exploration of their optical responses. |
| title | Sign control of photocurrents by spin-group-symmetry breaking in altermagnetic insulators |
| topic | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Materials Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26281 |