Strain-induced valley polarization, topological states, and piezomagnetism in two-dimensional altermagnetic V$_2$Te$_2$O, V$_2$STeO, V$_2$SSeO, and V$_2$S$_2$O

TL;DR

This paper predicts four 2D altermagnetic materials with strain-tunable valley polarization, topological states, and piezomagnetism, highlighting their potential for advanced nanoelectronic and spintronic applications.

Contribution

It introduces four novel 2D altermagnetic materials and demonstrates strain-induced valley polarization, topological states, and piezomagnetism through first-principles calculations.

Findings

Strain can induce valley polarization in these materials.

Uniaxial strain can generate topological states.

Finite doping enables piezomagnetism.

Abstract

Altermagnets (AM) are a recently discovered third class of collinear magnets, and have been attracting significant interest in the field of condensed matter physics. Here, based on first-principles calculations and theoretical analysis, we propose four two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials--monolayer V$_2$Te$_2$O, V$_2$STeO, V$_2$SSeO, and V$_2$S$_2$O--as candidates for altermagnetic materials. We show that these materials are semiconductors with spin-splitting in their nonrelativistic band structures. Furthermore, in the band structure, there are a pair of Dirac-type valleys located at the time-reversal invariant momenta (TRIM) X and Y points. These two valleys are connected by crystal symmetry instead of time-reversal symmetry. We investigate the strain effect on the band structure and find that uniaxial strain can induce valley polarization, topological states in these monolayer materials. Moreover, piezomagnetism can be realized upon finite doping. Our result reveals interesting valley physics in monolayer V$_2$Te$_2$O, V$_2$STeO, V$_2$SSeO, and V$_2$S$_2$O, suggesting their great potential for valleytronics, spintronics, and multifunctional nanoelectronics applications.