Ferroelectric Antiferromagnetic Lifting of Spin-Valley Degeneracy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of ferroelectric antiferromagnets that exhibit spontaneous spin-valley polarization, enabling tunable spintronic and valleytronic properties through layer sliding and ferroelectric control.

Contribution

It proposes a novel approach to achieve spin-valley polarization in TP-broken layered ferroelectric antiferromagnets, combining benefits of altermagnets and TP-symmetric AFMs.

Findings

Lifted spin degeneracy across the Brillouin zone.

Layer-dependent spin-polarization controllable by ferroelectricity.

Demonstrated in bilayer antiferromagnets like Nb3X8, VX2, and VSi2X4.

Abstract

The generation and control of spin- and valley-polarization in antiferromagnets (AFMs) have garnered increasing attention due to their potential for enabling faster and more stable multifunctional spintronic and valleytronic memory and logic devices. However, the two primary categories of AFMs, altermagnets and TP-symmetric AFMs, either lack intrinsic valley-polarization or net spin-polarization. Here, we propose an effective approach for achieving spontaneous spin-valley polarization in TP-broken layered ferroelectric antiferromagnets (FE-AFMs). The FE-AFMs exhibit lifted spin degeneracy across the entire Brillouin zone, along with uncompensated spin density of states. They combine the benefits of spin-polarization in altermagnets with valley-polarization in TP-symmetric AFMs. Furthermore, the FE-AFMs feature layer-dependent spin-polarization, rooted in their intrinsic ferroelectric property, allowing for the flexible control over spin-valley polarization by interlayer sliding. This tunability facilitates sign-reversible and size-tunable valley Hall and Nernst effects, along with other spin-valley-dependent transport properties. Our findings are demonstrated in a broad class of TP-broken bilayer antiferromagnets such as Nb3X8 (X = Cl, Br, I), VX2 (X = S, Se), and VSi2X4 (X = N, P), underscoring the potential of FE-AFMs for advancing next-generation spin- and valley-based information technologies.