Abstract
Altermagnets, a new frontier for spintronics, represent a distinct magnet class with nonrelativistic splitting of both electronic and chiral magnon bands, yet experimental verification of their unique magnon dynamics remains scarce. In this Letter, inelastic neutron scattering experiments on α-Fe2O3 reveal a clear magnon band splitting about 3 meV at ∼100 meV. We trace the origin of this splitting to the alternating exchange interactions between the 13th nearest neighbors, as supported by first-principles calculations, and confirm that the magnons have chiral splits by theoretical modeling. This definitive characterization of chiral magnons in hematite provides the fundamental insight needed to design and control spin transport in novel spintronic applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 186703 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 135 |
| Issue number | 18 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 31 2025 |
Funding
We thank Dr. Bing Li at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for fruitful discussions. Q. S., D. W., and C. L. are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0023874. This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The beam time was allocated to BL-18 ARCS on proposal No. IPTS-32702. We thank Dr. Bing Li at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for fruitful discussions. Q.S., D.W., and C.L. are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0023874. This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The beam time was allocated to BL-18 ARCS on proposal No. IPTS-32702.