Chiral altermagnon in MnTe
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 31, 2026

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Daniel Jost1,2, Resham Babu Regmi3,4, Eder G Lomeli1,5
1Stanford Institute for Material and Energy Science (SIMES), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
Abstract:
Altermagnetism has been recognized as a magnetic phase that bridges the properties of ferro- and antiferromagnetism. The momentum-dependent spin splitting observed in these materials reflects their distinctive symmetry characteristics, which also establish the conditions for chiral magnons to emerge. Here we provide direct experimental evidence for a chiral magnon in the altermagnetic candidate manganese telluride (MnTe) revealed by circular-dichroism resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. This mode, which we term chiral altermagnon, exhibits a distinct momentum dependence of its spin polarization consistent with the altermagnetic g-wave symmetry of MnTe. Our polarization-resolved data corroborate the existence of a discrete class of magnetic excitations, demonstrating how altermagnetic order shapes spin dynamics and paving the way for advances in spintronic and quantum technologies.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Paramagnetism
Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions
Magnetism
An individual magnetic pole cannot be isolated. No matter how small, every piece of a magnet contains a north pole and a south...
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
