Ferroically Ordered Magnetic Octupoles in d -Wave Altermagnets

We show that time-reversal symmetry-broken, centrosymmetric antiferromagnets with nonrelativistic spin splitting of d-wave symmetry—the so-called d-wave —are conveniently described in terms of the ferroic ordering of magnetic octupoles. The magnetic octupoles are the lowest-order ferroically ordered magnetic quantity in this case and so are the natural order parameter for the transition into the magnetically ordered state. They provide a unified description of the broken time-reversal symmetry and the nonrelativistic spin splitting, as well as a platform for manipulating the latter, and account for other phenomena, such as piezomagnetism, characteristic of this class of antiferromagnets. Unusually for…

• ET
  Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
• CS
  Centro Svizzero di Calcolo Scientifico
• H2
  Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

  Award: 810451