Magnetic-Order-Driven Nonlinear Photocurrents in PT-Broken Antiferromagnetic MnS2 and Altermagnetic MnSe2
Abstract
Nonlinear photocurrent responses generally require inversion-symmetry breaking, but its origin can be magnetic rather than structural. In this study, we investigate the bulk photovoltaic effect in antiferromagnetic MnS2 and altermagnetic MnSe2, two pyrite-type semiconductors whose magnetic ordering breaks inversion symmetry P and its combination with time reversal PT, while the accompanying lattice distortion is minute. We calculate the shift current (SC) and injection current (IC) responses under linearly and circularly polarized light with and without spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and identify their symmetry-allowed tensor components using the corresponding magnetic and spin point groups, respectively. Linear SC and circular IC are symmetry-allowed in both MnS2 and MnSe2 irrespective of SOC, whereas linear IC and circular SC remain forbidden in MnS2 but become allowed in MnSe2 only when SOC is included. These results highlight the importance of SOC and the corresponding MPG analysis for a complete description of nonlinear charge photocurrents in magnetic materials. Beyond charge responses, MnSe2 supports linear shift and circular injection spin photocurrents in the nonrelativistic limit, whereas all spin-photocurrent responses are forbidden in MnS2. Our findings therefore establish inversion symmetry breaking induced by compensated magnetic order as a route to generating and controlling nonlinear photocurrents.
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BibTeX
@misc{li2026magneticorderdriven,
title = {{Magnetic-Order-Driven Nonlinear Photocurrents in PT-Broken Antiferromagnetic MnS2 and Altermagnetic MnSe2}},
author = {Fu Li and Rajyavardhan Ray and Xiaoxiong Liu and Babu Baijnath Prasad and Chen Shen and Yaqian Guo and Jeroen van den Brink and Hongbin Zhang and Harish K. Singh},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.03450},
eprint = {2610.03450},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03450},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Magnetic-Order-Driven Nonlinear Photocurrents in PT-Broken Antiferromagnetic MnS2 and Altermagnetic MnSe2
AU - Fu Li
AU - Rajyavardhan Ray
AU - Xiaoxiong Liu
AU - Babu Baijnath Prasad
AU - Chen Shen
AU - Yaqian Guo
AU - Jeroen van den Brink
AU - Hongbin Zhang
AU - Harish K. Singh
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.03450
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03450
AB - Nonlinear photocurrent responses generally require inversion-symmetry breaking, but its origin can be magnetic rather than structural. In this study, we investigate the bulk photovoltaic effect in antiferromagnetic MnS2 and altermagnetic MnSe2, two pyrite-type semiconductors whose magnetic ordering breaks inversion symmetry P and its combination with time reversal PT, while the accompanying lattice distortion is minute. We calculate the shift current (SC) and injection current (IC) responses under linearly and circularly polarized light with and without spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and identify their symmetry-allowed tensor components using the corresponding magnetic and spin point groups, respectively. Linear SC and circular IC are symmetry-allowed in both MnS2 and MnSe2 irrespective of SOC, whereas linear IC and circular SC remain forbidden in MnS2 but become allowed in MnSe2 only when SOC is included. These results highlight the importance of SOC and the corresponding MPG analysis for a complete description of nonlinear charge photocurrents in magnetic materials. Beyond charge responses, MnSe2 supports linear shift and circular injection spin photocurrents in the nonrelativistic limit, whereas all spin-photocurrent responses are forbidden in MnS2. Our findings therefore establish inversion symmetry breaking induced by compensated magnetic order as a route to generating and controlling nonlinear photocurrents.
ER -