Unconventional Magneto-Optical Effects in Altermagnets

Abstract

The ideal altermagnets are a class of collinear, crystal-symmetry-enforced fully compensated magnets with nonrelativistic spin-split bands, in which contributions from Berry curvature to magneto-optical effects (MOEs) are strictly forbidden by an effective time-reversal symmetry. Here we show that, in such systems, MOEs are exclusively induced by the quantum metric and, in realistic altermagnets, are typically dominated by it. We refer to Berry-curvature-induced MOEs as conventional MOEs and to quantum-metric-dominated MOEs as unconventional MOEs. We derive general formulas that incorporate both Berry curvature and quantum metric for unconventional MOEs in altermagnets, enabling a quantitative evaluation of their respective contributions. Through symmetry analysis, we prove that ideal altermagnets are constrained to exhibit only unconventional MOEs. Using the three-dimensional canonical altermagnet MnTe and the emerging two-dimensional bilayer twisted altermagnet CrSBr as illustrative examples, we demonstrate that unconventional MOEs are prevalent in altermagnets. Our results establish altermagnets as a natural platform for quantum-metric-driven optical phenomena, substantially broadening the scope of MOEs and providing concrete predictions that can be tested in future experimental studies.