Cage-enforced i-wave altermagnetism in boron-carbon clathrates
Abstract
The spin splitting of an altermagnet arises from a rotation that relates its two magnetic sublattices. In known cases it is fixed by the crystal structure. Here we show that guest-host frameworks separate the two roles. In the boron-carbon clathrates MB3C3 the ordered cage removes the translation between the two guest sites and enforces cubic i-wave altermagnetism, with six symmetry-enforced nodal planes, for any magnetic guest in the compensated state; strain retunes the class to d- or g-wave. We demonstrate the platform with GdB3C3: its compensated antiferromagnetic ground state is a narrow-gap semiconductor with spin splitting of 0.19 eV at the conduction-band edge, and its weakly pinned Néel vector switches the helicity-resolved optical response on and off according to the magnetic point group. Thermodynamic stability at high pressure and dynamical stability at ambient pressure indicate that it can be made by the route established for this family.
Related
- High-Throughput Discovery of Chiral Carbon-Boron Semimetals with Weyl Topology and Phonon-Mediated Superconductivity
- Signatures of a high-temperature collective electronic phase with superconductivity-like characteristics and a giant pressure effect in networks of boron-doped ultrathin carbon nanotubes
- Symmetry-Enforced Topological Structures in Quantum Phase Diagrams
- Symmetry-enforced third-order nonlinear thermal Hall effects in altermagnets
- Symmetry-enforced topological parity: revisiting 2ℤ classifications beyond cellwise symmetry actions
BibTeX
@misc{wang2026cageenforced,
title = {{Cage-enforced i-wave altermagnetism in boron-carbon clathrates}},
author = {Meiyan Wang and Li Zhu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.03492},
eprint = {2611.03492},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03492},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Cage-enforced i-wave altermagnetism in boron-carbon clathrates
AU - Meiyan Wang
AU - Li Zhu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.03492
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03492
AB - The spin splitting of an altermagnet arises from a rotation that relates its two magnetic sublattices. In known cases it is fixed by the crystal structure. Here we show that guest-host frameworks separate the two roles. In the boron-carbon clathrates MB_3C_3 the ordered cage removes the translation between the two guest sites and enforces cubic i-wave altermagnetism, with six symmetry-enforced nodal planes, for any magnetic guest in the compensated state; strain retunes the class to d- or g-wave. We demonstrate the platform with GdB_3C_3: its compensated antiferromagnetic ground state is a narrow-gap semiconductor with spin splitting of 0.19 eV at the conduction-band edge, and its weakly pinned Néel vector switches the helicity-resolved optical response on and off according to the magnetic point group. Thermodynamic stability at high pressure and dynamical stability at ambient pressure indicate that it can be made by the route established for this family.
ER -