Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 54: Altermagnets VI
MA 54.9: Talk
Friday, March 13, 2026, 11:45–12:00, HSZ/0002
Emergent d-wave surface altermagnetism in G-type Heusler antiferromagnets V3Al and V2TiSi — •Ersoy Sasioglu, Ingrid Mertig, and Samir Lounis — Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
Antiferromagnets that preserve combined inversion and time-reversal symmetry (PT) necessarily exhibit spin-degenerate electronic bands in the absence of spin-orbit coupling. Using density-functional theory, we show that asymmetric surface terminations of centrosymmetric G-type Heusler antiferromagnets lift the PT symmetry and give rise to an exchange-driven, nonrelativistic d-wave spin splitting, a mechanism we term surface altermagnetism. In the antiferromagnetic semimetal V3Al, an experimentally established compound with TN ≈ 700 K, and in the antiferromagnetic semiconductor V2TiSi, the interior layers of the slab retain the conventional compensated G-type order and spin-degenerate electronic structure, whereas inequivalent surface terminations induce pronounced d-wave spin splittings and metallic surface states localized on the outer transition-metal layers that decay exponentially toward the bulk. These results demonstrate that surface altermagnetism arises purely from lattice-symmetry breaking at asymmetric terminations, providing a robust, exchange-driven route to engineer spin-polarized metallic surface states in high-temperature G-type antiferromagnets without invoking spin-orbit coupling.
Keywords: Surface altermagnetism; Heusler antiferromagnets; Nonrelativistic spin splitting; d-wave spin texture; PT symmetry breaking