Altermagnetism in NiSi and antiferromagnetic candidate materials with non-collinear spins

TL;DR

This paper explores altermagnetism in non-collinear antiferromagnetic materials like NiSi, highlighting their PT symmetry violation and potential for nonlinear anomalous Hall effects, expanding the understanding of magnetic phenomena.

Contribution

It identifies NiSi and other materials as candidates for altermagnetism with non-collinear spins, extending the concept beyond collinear structures.

Findings

NiSi exhibits high-temperature antiferromagnetism with non-collinear spins.

NiSi fulfills PT symmetry breaking and shows nonlinear anomalous Hall effect.

Other potential non-collinear antiferromagnetic materials are discussed.

Abstract

Recently, a new class of magnetic phenomenon, called altermagnetism, was proposed where the underlying spin configuration resembles antiferromagnetic structure, but the system violates \textbf{PT} (PT: Parity times Time reversal) symmetry due to the alternation of crystalline symmetry across magnetic ions. Although the original idea was proposed for the collinear spin structure, a recent report by Cheong et al. has suggested that antiferromagnetic materials with non-collinear spin structure and local alternation of crystalline arrangement can also manifest altermagnetism. Besides breaking the \textbf{PT} symmetry, altermagnetic compounds are also expected to exhibit anomalous Hall effects of odd orders. Here, we discuss possible candidates in this regard. One example is nickel monosilicide, which was recently shown to exhibit high temperature antiferromagnetism with non-collinear spin structure. It fulfills both criteria of breaking the \textbf{PT} symmetry and manifesting nonlinear anomalous Hall effect. In addition to NiSi, we also discuss other potential antiferromagnetic materials with non-collinear spin configuration for the exploration of altermagnetic states.