Multiphoton Fingerprints of Altermagnetic Spin Splittings

Abstract

We systematically investigate multiphoton absorption as a polarization-resolved nonlinear optical probe of planar altermagnets (ALMs). We show that the angular harmonic of the altermagnetic spin splitting fixes the lowest optical absorption at which a symmetry-selective response appears: two-photon absorption for $d$-wave order, four-photon absorption for $g$-wave order, and six-photon absorption for $i$-wave order. In each case, there exists a polarization channel locked to the symmetry harmonic of the altermagnetic texture in which the direct $n$-photon contribution to the transition matrix element is absent. This changes the frequency scaling of the absorption rate relative to other polarization channels and provides a direct optical fingerprint of the underlying altermagnetic harmonic. Our results establish a hierarchy of nonlinear spectroscopic signatures that distinguishes $d$-, $g$-, and $i$-wave altermagnetic spin splittings beyond linear response.