2023/12/21 by Guo, Peng-Jie, Gu, Yuhao, Gao, Ze-Feng +1 · 6 citations
#FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2312.13911
Altermagnetism is a new magnetic phase with k-dependent spin polarization and may exist in an insulating state with a high Néel temperature. This provides a new opportunity to obtain both spin and electric polarization in one material. Here, based on symmetry analysis and the first-principles electronic structures calculations, we predict that LiFe2F6 is a d-wave altermagnetic and charge-ordering-mediated ferroelectric material. Moreover, the LiFe2F6 transforms into a ferrimagnetic and ferroelectric phase with strong magnetoelectric coupling under biaxial compressive strain. Interestingly, the spins of the valence band and the conduction band are opposite in ferrimagnetic LiFe2F6, which facilitates a simultaneous spin-triplet excitonic insulator phase. More importantly, the spin-triplet excitons with spin 1 and -1 can be switched by electric fields in ferrimagnetic LiFe2F6 due to strong magnetoelectric coupling. Due to the abundance of novel physical properties, LiFe2F6 will certainly attract a wide range of theoretical and experimental interest.