Ligand-mediated Origin of Altermagnetic Spin-Splitting
Abstract
Altermagnets host spin-split electronic bands despite zero net magnetization, opening new routes for spintronics beyond conventional ferromagnets. Going beyond symmetry-based classifications, which specify allowed terms but not their hierarchy, here we use first-principles calculations and Wannier Hamiltonian engineering to uncover the microscopic bonding contributions of altermagnetic spin splitting in the g-wave altermagnet Co1/4NbSe2. We show that the splitting is captured by a short-range tight-binding model, establishing its local origin. By selectively controlling hopping channels, we demonstrate that the dominant contribution arises not from direct magnetic-ion hopping, but from ligand-mediated hybridization that transfers anisotropy to itinerant states. This identifies ligand-assisted coupling as the key mechanism of altermagnetic spin splitting and provides a microscopic bridge between minimal models and symmetry guided first-principles material searches, enabling real-space design of altermagnetic functionality.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{camerano2026ligandmediated,
title = {{Ligand-mediated Origin of Altermagnetic Spin-Splitting}},
author = {Luigi Camerano and Federico Bisti and Gianni Profeta},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.21284},
eprint = {2605.21284},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.21284},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Ligand-mediated Origin of Altermagnetic Spin-Splitting
AU - Luigi Camerano
AU - Federico Bisti
AU - Gianni Profeta
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.21284
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.21284
AB - Altermagnets host spin-split electronic bands despite zero net magnetization, opening new routes for spintronics beyond conventional ferromagnets. Going beyond symmetry-based classifications, which specify allowed terms but not their hierarchy, here we use first-principles calculations and Wannier Hamiltonian engineering to uncover the microscopic bonding contributions of altermagnetic spin splitting in the g-wave altermagnet Co_1/4NbSe_2. We show that the splitting is captured by a short-range tight-binding model, establishing its local origin. By selectively controlling hopping channels, we demonstrate that the dominant contribution arises not from direct magnetic-ion hopping, but from ligand-mediated hybridization that transfers anisotropy to itinerant states. This identifies ligand-assisted coupling as the key mechanism of altermagnetic spin splitting and provides a microscopic bridge between minimal models and symmetry guided first-principles material searches, enabling real-space design of altermagnetic functionality.
ER -