Twisted Magnetic Van der Waals Bilayers: An Ideal Platform for Altermagnetism

Abstract: We introduce a universal methodology for generating and manipulating altermagnetism in two-dimensional (2D) magnetic van der Waals (MvdW) materials through twisting. We find that a key in-plane 2-fold rotational operation can be achieved in a twisted bilayer of any 2D MvdW material, which takes one of all five 2D Bravais lattices, thereby inducing altermagnetism. By choosing the constituent MvdW monolayer with specific symmetry, our approach can tailor altermagnetism of any type, such as $d$-wave, $g$-wave, and $i$-wave. Furthermore, the properties of our twisted altermagnetic materials can be easily engineered. Taking a transition-metal oxyhalide VOBr as an example, we find that by tuning the twist angle and Fermi level a giant spin Hall angle can be obtained, much larger than the experimentally reported. This approach establishes a general, robust, and adjustable platform to explore altermagnetism, and provides a new efficient way to generate and manipulate the spin current.