Large anisotropic x-ray magnetic circular dichroism in altermagnetic CrSb with collinear antiferromagnetic structure at room temperature
Phys. Rev. B 111, 224417 – Published 17 June, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/cm39-hxqk
Abstract
Altermagnets have dual properties similar to ferromagnets and antiferromagnets like spin splitting and zero net magnetization, and their potentially novel physical effects have aroused the interest of researchers. In this work, we report the observation of a large x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) signal (≈0.6), which is comparable to the value in ferromagnets, in altermagnetic CrSb with collinear antiferromagnetic structure at room temperature. The XMCD signal is anisotropic and it persists even at a magnetic field of 5 T, which distinguishes the altermagnetic contribution to XMCD from the weak ferromagnetism. The anisotropic XMCD signal can be explained through symmetry analysis of CrSb with altermagnetic characteristics. Our results highlight the distinct XMCD phenomenon in altermagnetic CrSb with time-reversal-symmetry breaking, and its potential application for optical spectroscopy and microscopy at room temperature.
