Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The recent discovery of altermagnetism has sparked growing interest in compensated magnetic systems as promising platforms for highly scalable spintronics. Altermagnetism is a distinct magnetic order where opposite spin sublattices are connected by rotation, yielding zero net magnetization but momentum‑dependent spin splitting. To date, experimental verification of altermagnetic order has been achieved predominantly through bulk-sensitive techniques, including spin-dependent electronic spectra and transport responses. However, direct atomic-scale evidence that explicitly correlates crystal symmetry, local structural distortions, and magnetic ordering has remained unexplored. Here, we report the direct atomic scale observation of coexisting polar distortions and altermagnetic order in MnTe, combining atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) imaging with electron magnetic chiral dichroism (EMCD) measurements. We reveal that MnTe is not an ideal uniform P63/mmc g-wave altermagnet at the atomic scale. Instead, it hosts ubiquitous inversion-symmetry-breaking distortions that lower the spin-space-group (SSG) symmetry, admits d-wave altermagnetic components, and in lower-symmetry regimes, even allow s‑wave spin splitting (net magnetization). The coexistence of ferroelectric signatures and altermagnetic order establishes local lattice symmetry in MnTe as a control knob for altermagnetic spin splitting, spin current generation, and multiferroic memory applications.
Source: Research Square
Authors: Guodong Ren, Jonathan DeStefano, Xiao-Wei Zhang, Arashdeep Thind, Rajiv Giridharagopal, José Ángel Castellanos-Reyes, Paul Zeiger, Noah Kamm, Sijie Xu, Zhaoyu Liu, Yaofeng Xie, Filip Krizek, Jan Michalicka, Richard Campion, Pengcheng Dai, Peter Wadley, David Ginger, Tomas Jungwirth, Robert Klie, Ján Rusz, Di Xiao, Jiun-Haw Chu, Juan Idrobo
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Battelle, Northwestern University, University of Washington, UT-Battelle, Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy, Vetenskapsrådet, China Scholarship Council, Office of Science, Clean Energy Institute, Division of Materials Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Army Research Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering
Awards: G1019100964, G1026679911, G121915436, G1645119126, G166562317, G1739289980, G1935710221, G2016422940, G2411683797, G2639881818, G2757267231, Research infrastructure CzechNanoLab, The Waltz of Atoms: Detecting Circularly Polarized Phonons in Vibrational STEM-EELS, G2988778103, G311062248, G313257413, G315856607, G3178611384, G3499273409, G3524865965, G3873678740, G3945850812, G416814614, G4423657506, G4515799968, MULTIMODAL IN SITU SCANNING PROBES FOR UNDERSTANDING MIXED ORGANIC-INORGANIC HALIDE PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS, G4965015157, G5012956223, MRSEC: UW Molecular Engineering Materials Center, G5589556504, G5726405315, G6139515382, G6182780125, G6424390166, G6457474454, NNCI: Northwest Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NWNI), G675320460, G6830658824, NNCI: Northwest Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NNI), G7883521977, G807938293, G8140083606, G8269158468, G8417023356, G8429605129, NAISS, G8906985441, G8943143067, G8993327715
OpenAlex ID: W7165682015