Three-dimensional mapping and electronic origin of large altermagnetic splitting near Fermi level in CrSb

Recently, a new kind of collinear magnetism, dubbed altermagnetism, has attracted considerable interests. A key characteristic of altermagnet is the momentum-dependent band and spin splitting without net magnetization. However, finding altermagnetic materials with large splitting near the Fermi level, which necessarily requires three-dimensional k-space mapping and is crucial for spintronic applications and emergent phenomena, remains challenging. Here by employing synchrotron-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and model calculations, we uncover a large altermagnetic splitting, up to ~1.0 eV, near the Fermi level in CrSb. We verify its bulk-type g-wave altermagnetism through systematic three-dimensional kspace mapping, which unambiguously reveals the altermagnetic symmetry and associated nodal planes. The ARPES results are well captured by density functional theory calculations. In addition, tight-binding model analysis indicate that the large altermagnetic splitting arises from strong third-nearest-neighbor hopping mediated by Sb ions, which breaks both the space-time reversal symmetry and the translational spin-rotation symmetry. The large band/spin splitting near Fermi level in metallic CrSb, together with its high TN (up to 705 K) and simple spin configuration, paves the way for exploring emergent phenomena and spintronic applications based on altermagnets.
Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures and 1 table