Phase and electronic structure control of altermagnetic <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>α</mi><mtext>−</mtext><mi>MnTe</mi></mrow></math> thin films via epitaxy on InP (111)

Yuzhe Wang; Shiwu Su; Min Ge; Pengxu Ran; Tongrui Li; Xianglin Li; Sen Liao; Yu Liang; Jiaqin Wen; Jianghao Yao; Jiexiong Sun; Haoyuan Yan; Rui Xu; Shengtao Cui; Zhe Sun; Donglai Feng; Juan Jiang

doi:10.1103/vwgc-ltkz

Phase and electronic structure control of altermagnetic $α − MnTe$ thin films via epitaxy on InP (111)

Yuzhe Wang^1,*, Shiwu Su^1,*, Min Ge^2,*, Pengxu Ran¹, Tongrui Li¹, Xianglin Li¹, Sen Liao¹, Yu Liang¹, Jiaqin Wen ¹ et al.

Jianghao Yao¹, Jiexiong Sun¹, Haoyuan Yan¹, Rui Xu¹, Shengtao Cui³, Zhe Sun³, Donglai Feng ⁴, and Juan Jiang ^1,4,†

¹Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at Microscale and School of Emerging technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
²The Instruments Center for Physical Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
³National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
⁴New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Hefei National Laboratory, Hefei 230088, China

^*These authors contributed equally to this work.
^†Contact author: jjiangcindy@ustc.edu.cn

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 205139 – Published 20 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vwgc-ltkz

Abstract

Tailoring altermagnetism in $α − MnTe$ thin films via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) enables the investigation of emergent quantum states and their underlying physical mechanisms. Here, we report a systematic study of MnTe thin film growth on InP (111) substrates. Crucially, the substrate termination determines the resulting phase: InP (111)-A stabilizes the altermagnetic $α − MnTe$ phase, whereas InP (111)-B favors the zinc-blende $β − MnTe$ phase, as further corroborated by transmission electron microscopy. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements reveal band features near $E_{F}$ that are consistent with the reported band splitting in $α − MnTe$ , while $β − MnTe$ exhibits a large band gap with its valence band maximum lying well below $E_{F}$ . Furthermore, combining thickness-dependent transport and ARPES measurements, we demonstrate that both the Néel temperature and electronic structure of $α − MnTe$ are pronouncedly modified, suggesting tuning effects arising from reduced dimensionality and interfacial coupling in the ultrathin regime. Our work establishes a systematic MBE growth protocol for high-quality thin films and facilitates further understanding of dimensional effects and interfacial effects in altermagnets.

Physical Review B

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Phase and electronic structure control of altermagnetic $α − MnTe$ thin films via epitaxy on InP (111)

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Phase and electronic structure control of altermagnetic α−MnTe thin films via epitaxy on InP (111)

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Phase and electronic structure control of altermagnetic $α − MnTe$ thin films via epitaxy on InP (111)