Ferroelectric Switchable Altermagnetism
We propose a novel ferroelectric switchable altermagnetism effect: the reversal of ferroelectric polarization is coupled to the switching of altermagnetic spin splitting. We demonstrate the design principles for the ferroelectric altermagnets and the additional symmetry constraints necessary for switching the spin splitting through flipping the electric polarization based on the state-of-the-art spin-group symmetry techniques. We find 22 ferroelectric altermagnets by screening through the 2001 experimental reported magnetic structures in the MAGNDATA database and identify two of them as ferroelectric switchable altermagnets. Using the hybrid improper ferroelectric material [C(NH_{2})_{3}] Cr(HCOO)_{3} as an example, we show how the altermagnetic spin splitting is tightly coupled to the ferroelectric polarization, providing an ideal platform for designing electric-field-controllable multiferroic devices. Finally, we find that such manipulation of altermagnetism can be detected by monitoring the physical quantities that are related to the nonvanishing Berry curvature dipole, such as the linearly polarized photogalvanic spin current.
Authors
- Kunihiro Yananose (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2677-5624)
- Mingqiang Gu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2889-2202)
- Yuntian Liu
- Qihang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9843-2482)
- Alessandro Stroppa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1000-4745)
- Xiaobing Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4327-1209)
- Hao Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4682-0389)
- Yibo Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2787-1121)
Institutions
- Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KR)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Quantum Science Center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-03-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.106802
- Citations
- 103
- Primary Topic
- Multiferroics and related materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 44.02
Funders
- European Commission
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
- Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality
- Southern University of Science and Technology
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory Of Computational Science And Material Design
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Program