Spin-selective elliptic optical dichroism and perfectly spin-polarized third-order nonlinear photocurrent in altermagnets

TL;DR

This paper explores the unique spin-selective optical and nonlinear photocurrent phenomena in altermagnets with anisotropic Dirac cones, revealing potential for spintronics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a low-energy theory for d-wave altermagnets, deriving a formula for third-order photocurrent linked to quantum metric and Berry curvature, highlighting spin-selective effects.

Findings

Spin-selective perfect elliptic dichroism occurs in altermagnets.

Only up-spin polarized current is induced by elliptically polarized light.

Nonzero photocurrent arises solely from Dirac cone anisotropy.

Abstract

It is shown that the low-energy theory of a $d$-wave altermagnet is characterized by anisotropic Dirac cones with up and down spins based on a recently proposed tight-binding model. Spin-selective perfect elliptic dichroism occurs in this system, where only up-spin or down-spin electrons are excited by elliptically polarized light. Then, we derive a formula for the third-order photocurrent induced by applying both elliptically polarized light and static electric field, which is described in terms of quantum metric and the Berry curvature. Based on it, we predict only up-spin polarized current is induced. It is the leading order of photocurrent because the second-order photocurrent such as the injection current and the shift current are prohibited due to inversion symmetry inherent to altermagnets. It is intriguing that nonzero photocurrent is induced only by the anisotropy of the Dirac cones. Our results will be useful for future photo-excited spintronics based on altermagnets.