Thermodynamic measurements on g-wave altermagnet candidate MnTe

Altermagnetism describes materials with collinear spin arrangements which exhibit compensated magnetization (similar to antiferromagnets) and spin-split energy levels (similar to ferromagnets). This combination of properties makes altermagnets compelling for applications such as spin-based information technologies. Fundamentally, altermagnetism is also quite interesting because there is an expectation of complex band splitting associated with multipolar order in altermagnetic compounds.

One candidate altermagnetic material is MnTe. This system is known to possess antiferromagnetic order characterized by a high transition temperature and large spin-splitting between electronic states. MnTe is also expected to host a g-wave altermagnetic phase. We investigate possible signatures of g-wave altermagnetism in bulk single crystals of MnTe via measurements of thermodynamic properties above and below the magnetic phase transition near room temperature. We augment these temperature-dependent results with measurements at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory’s Pulsed Field Facility to characterize field-dependent changes in MnTe up to 65T.