Centrosymmetric antiferromagnetic semiconductors, although abundant in nature, appear less favorable in spintronics owing to the lack of inherent spin polarization and magnetization. We unveil hidden Zeeman-type spin splitting in layered centrosymmetric antiferromagnets with asymmetric sublayer structures through first-principles simulations and symmetry analysis. Taking the bilayer counterpart of recently synthesized monolayer MnSe, we demonstrate that the degenerate states around specific $\mathit{k}$ points spatially segregate on different sublayers forming $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric pairs. Furthermore, degenerate states exhibit uniform in-plane spin configurations with opposite orientations enforced by mirror symmetry. Bands are locally Zeeman split up to order of $\sim 70\mathrm{meV}$. Strikingly, a tiny electric field of a few $\mathrm{mV}{\AA }^{-1}$ along the $z$ direction breaks the double degeneracy forming additional Zeeman pairs. The design principle to obtain Zeeman-type splitting in centrosymmetric antiferromagnets established here expands the range of materials among which to look for spintronics.

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• Electronic structure
• Magnetism
• Spintronics
• Antiferromagnets
• Density functional theory