Electric-field-induced x-ray nonreciprocal dichroism in hematite
Abstract
Hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ) is a prototypical room-temperature antiferromagnet whose time-reversal-odd magnetic structure has recently attracted renewed attention. While such magnetic symmetry can be characterized in terms of higher-order multipoles beyond the magnetic dipole, their manifestation in measurable physical phenomena has remained largely elusive. In this work, we investigate x-ray absorption near the Fe K-edge of hematite under an applied electric field, which explicitly breaks space-inversion symmetry. We observe an electric-field-induced x-ray nonreciprocal linear dichroism that reflects the timereversal-odd nature of the magnetic order. A symmetry-resolved multipole analysis attributes this response to the electric-field-induced magnetic quadrupole and the magnetic toroidal octupole induced by the applied electric field. Furthermore, numerical simulations based on ab initio density functional theory reproduce the observed spectra, including their dependence on the antiferromagnetic domain and x-ray polarization. These results indicate that electric-field-modulated x-ray absorption measurements, combined with simulations, provide a framework for identifying the higher-order multipoles contributing to measurable physical responses in time-reversal-odd antiferromagnets, thereby facilitating the investigation of hidden symmetry properties in magnetic materials.
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BibTeX
@article{hayashida2026electricfieldinduced,
title = {{Electric-field-induced x-ray nonreciprocal dichroism in hematite}},
author = {Takeshi Hayashida and Koei Matsumoto and Keito Arakawa and Yves Joly and Sergio Di Matteo and Kenji Tamasaku and Yoshikazu Tanaka and Tsuyoshi Kimura},
journal = {Physical Review X},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1103/p5ry-x2wr},
eprint = {2603.20737},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05799951v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Electric-field-induced x-ray nonreciprocal dichroism in hematite
AU - Takeshi Hayashida
AU - Koei Matsumoto
AU - Keito Arakawa
AU - Yves Joly
AU - Sergio Di Matteo
AU - Kenji Tamasaku
AU - Yoshikazu Tanaka
AU - Tsuyoshi Kimura
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Physical Review X
DO - 10.1103/p5ry-x2wr
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05799951v1
AB - Hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ) is a prototypical room-temperature antiferromagnet whose time-reversal-odd magnetic structure has recently attracted renewed attention. While such magnetic symmetry can be characterized in terms of higher-order multipoles beyond the magnetic dipole, their manifestation in measurable physical phenomena has remained largely elusive. In this work, we investigate x-ray absorption near the Fe K-edge of hematite under an applied electric field, which explicitly breaks space-inversion symmetry. We observe an electric-field-induced x-ray nonreciprocal linear dichroism that reflects the timereversal-odd nature of the magnetic order. A symmetry-resolved multipole analysis attributes this response to the electric-field-induced magnetic quadrupole and the magnetic toroidal octupole induced by the applied electric field. Furthermore, numerical simulations based on ab initio density functional theory reproduce the observed spectra, including their dependence on the antiferromagnetic domain and x-ray polarization. These results indicate that electric-field-modulated x-ray absorption measurements, combined with simulations, provide a framework for identifying the higher-order multipoles contributing to measurable physical responses in time-reversal-odd antiferromagnets, thereby facilitating the investigation of hidden symmetry properties in magnetic materials.
SN - 2160-3308
ER -