Field-Modulated Crystal Transport in Altermagnetic Topological materials

Abstract: Altermagnetism (AM), a recently proposed third type of collinear magnetic phase, has garnered significant attention due to its extraordinary features, including nonrelativistic alternating spin-splitting, spin-degenerate nodal topology, and anisotropic crystal transport. Here, we explore the role of inherent altermagnetic topology in crystal transport phenomena (such as crystal Hall, Nernst, and thermal Hall effects) in several room-temperature altermagnets, including tetragonal \textit{X}V$_2$\textit{Y}$_2$O (\textit{X} = K, Rb, Cs; \textit{Y} = S, Se, Te), RuO$_2$, MnF$_2$, as well as hexagonal CrSb and MnTe. Notably, in \textit{X}V$_2$\textit{Y}$_2$O, the first experimentally realized layered altermagnets, crystal transport is governed by altermagnetic pseudonodal surfaces, emphasizing the purely topological contributions to crystal transport. Furthermore, crystal transport exhibits strong anisotropy relative to the N{\'e}el vector. Interestingly, we demonstrate that spin-canting, a unique method for selectively controlling the altermagnetic topology and crystal transport, can substantially enhance the magnitude of these phenomena while preserving the alternating spin characteristics in both real and momentum space. Our findings provide an effective strategy for manipulating crystal transport in altermagnets, offering valuable insights for their potential applications in spintronics and spin caloritronics.