Magneto transport and electronic properties of altermagnetic MnTe

In addition to the well-known ferrro(ferri)magnets (FM) and Neel antiferromagnets (AF), a new class of magnetic materials has been recently realized. They are dubbed "altermagnets" (AM), since they are (a) principally different from the two "canonical" classes, and (b) as opposed to AF, they include alternating (staggered) magnetization density not only in the real space but also in the reciprocal space. MnTe is one of the handful of materials predicted to be altermagnetic. MnTe crystalizes in NiAs- type structure in space group P6/mmm. It orders into an antiferromagnetic state at a relatively high temperature of around 310 K. the magnetic structure consists of ferromagnetic Mn planes coupled antiferromagnetically along the c-axis such that two antiferromagnetic Mn sublattices are related not by a regular 6-fold rotation, but by a 6-fold screw axis thus providing the necessary crystal symmetry that couples with the spin structure to give rise to altermagnetism. Here we will present the magnetotransport properties measured on the bulk single crystal of MnTe and discuss the results with respect to the calculated electronic band structure.