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It has recently been realized that magnetic systems with coplanar magnetic order that are invariant under the combined operation of time-reversal and translation with half a unit cell feature energy bands with a symmetry-protected $p$-wave spin polarization. Such $p$-wave magnets are a sought-after spin analogy of unconventional triplet superconducting pairing and show promise for use in spintronics. Metallic helimagnets provide a realization of $p$-wave magnetism, but such order often occurs in systems lacking inversion symmetry so that Rashba spin-orbit interactions can be prominent. An important question is therefore how the magnitude and the existence of $p$-wave spin polarization is affected by Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Here, we prove that while the $p$-wave symmetry of the spin-polarized bands is strictly speaking removed by spin-orbit interactions in helimagnets unless the period of the helix is fine-tuned, the actual quantitative deviation from $p$-wave symmetry is extremely weak unless the period of the helix is only a few lattice sites. Thereafter, we show that the $p$-wave magnetism becomes completely robust in pairs of antiferromagnetically coupled helices. More precisely, the $p$-wave spin-polarization of the bands then appears regardless of the periodicity and regardless of the strength of the spin-orbit interactions. This shows that antiferromagnetically coupled helimagnetic chains produce robust $p$-wave spin polarization free of fine-tuning requirements, making them attractive for potential spintronic applications.

Utilizing the electron orbital degree of freedom in heterostructures is attracting increasing attention due to the possibility of achieving much larger conversion rates between charge and orbital angular momentum flow compared to the intrinsic electron spin. Here, we consider orbital angular momentum currents in a tight-binding multiorbital lattice model and derive their continuity equation. From it, we observe that the current is not conserved and apply similar considerations to the recently discovered altermagnets. We find nonzero orbital torque terms, elucidate their physical mechanism, and show numerically that they contribute to dampening the orbital angular momentum current flowing in multiorbital heterostructures. Moreover, we compute the orbital RKKY interaction and find it exhibits similar characteristics as the orbital angular momentum current mediating it, thus serving as a direct experimental probe of such currents., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Altermagnets is a class of antiferromagnetic materials which has electron bands with lifted spin degeneracy in momentum space but vanishing net magnetization and no stray magnetic fields. Because of these properties, altermagnets have attracted much attention for potential use in spintronics. We here show that despite the absence of bulk magnetization, the itinerant electrons in altermagnets can generate a magnetization close to edges and vacuum interfaces. We find that surface-induced magnetization can also occur for conventional antiferromagnets with spin-degenerate bands, where the magnetization from the itinerant electrons originates from a subtle yet nonvanishing redistribution of the probability density on the unit-cell level. An intuitive explanation of this effect in a phenomenological model is provided. In the altermagnetic case, the induced magnetization has a different spatial dependence than in the antiferromagnetic case due to the anisotropy of the spin-polarized Fermi surfaces, causing the edge-induced Friedel oscillations of the spin-up and -down electron densities to have different periods. We employ both a low-energy effective continuum model and lattice tight-binding calculations. Our results have implications for the usage of altermagnets and antiferromagnets in nanoscale spintronic applications., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Published version

We propose altermagnet-superconductor junctions as a way to achieve a thermoelectric response in metals free of external or stray magnetic fields. We combine qualitative analysis in a simplified model with a more rigorous approach based on the inverse proximity effect in the functional-integral formulation. We show that coupling an altermagnet to a superconductor in a bilayer induces a momentum-dependent spin-splitting in the superconductor. When tunneling occurs between this bilayer and a different altermagnet, a spin-dependent particle-hole symmetry breakdown arises in the transport, which leads to a thermoelectric response. Our results show that the altermagnet-superconductor junctions may achieve comparable thermoelectric performance to ferromagnet-superconductor junctions, featuring a nonmonotonic dependence of the figure of merit on the strength of the altermagnetic splitting. We also point out an often overlooked fact regarding the inverse proximity effect in superconductors, namely that even in a normal metal-superconductor junction there is a minigap in the superconductor, which gives rise to a four-peak structure in the DOS reminiscent of spin-split superconductors. Our results show that altermagnetic metals, unlike conventional antiferromagnets, can be used for efficient cryogenic thermoelectricity., Comment: 14 pages, 11 multi-panel figures

Identifying superconducting materials with spin-polarized Cooper pairs is an important objective both for exploration of new fundamental physics and for cryogenic applications in spintronics and quantum sensing. We here compute the critical temperature $T_c$ of the superconducting transition in a bilayer comprised of a superconductor with an intrinsic spin-triplet order parameter and a ferromagnet. We determine how $T_c$ varies both with the thickness of the ferromagnet and its magnetization direction. We show that both the orbital and spin part of the triplet superconducting order parameter leave clear signatures in $T_c$ which do not appear in a bilayer of a conventional s-wave superconductor and a ferromagnet. In particular, the dependence of $T_c$ on these variables changes depending on whether or not the superconducting order parameter features Andreev bound-states and also changes qualitatively when the magnetization is rotated in the plane of the ferromagnetic film. Measurements of $T_c$ in such bilayers are therefore useful to identify the pairing symmetry of intrinsic triplet superconductors.

Altermagnetism is a subclass of antiferromagnetism that features spin-polarized electron bands of a non-relativistic origin despite the absence of a net magnetiation in the material. We here theoretically study spin pumping from an altermagnetic insulator into a normal metal. The symmetry properties of the lattice and spin order of the altermagnet alters the magnon dispersion compared to a conventional square lattice antiferromagnet. We find that for a homogeneous magnetic field, the spin pumping current is the same as that of a regular antiferromagnet. If, however the magnetic field becomes spatially dependent, we predict that the altermagnetic order leaves a unique fingerprint on the spin pumping behaviour when the orientation of the spatial modulation does not align with the high-symmetry paths of magnon degeneracy in the altermagnet. This demonstrates that altermagnets can be used for THz spin pumping purposes with novel behaviour, distinguishing them from their regular antiferromagnet counterparts., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

Andreev molecules consist of two coherently coupled Josephson junctions and permit non-local control over supercurrents. By making the barriers magnetic and thus creating a spin-valve, we predict that a non-local Josephson diode effect occurs that is switchable via the magnetic configuration of the barriers. The diode effect is turned on, off, or changes its sign depending on whether the spin-valve is in a parallel, normal, or antiparallel configuration. These results offer a way to exert complete control over a non-local Josephson diode effect via the spin degree of freedom rather than varying a global magnetic flux which affects the entire system and likely neighbouring components in a device architecture., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Adding a Rashba term to the Hubbard Hamiltonian produces a model which can be used to learn how spin-orbit interactions impact correlated electrons on a lattice. Previous works have studied such a model using a variety of theoretical frameworks, mainly close to half-filling. In this work, we determine the magnetic phase-diagram for the Rashba-Hubbard model for arbitrary hole doping using a sine square deformed lattice mean-field model with an unrestricted ansatz, thus suppressing finite size effects and allowing for inhomogeneous order. We find that the introduction of Rashba spin-orbit coupling significantly alters the ground state properties of the Hubbard model and we observe an increasing complexity of the ground state phase composition for increasing spin-orbit strength. We also introduce a gradual deformed envelope (GDE) technique building on the sine square methodology to facilitate convergence towards ordered and defect-free ground state configurations which is a challenge with the unrestricted ansatz at high interaction strengths. We observe that the use of the GDE technique significantly lowers the free energy of the obtained configurations. Moreover, we consider transient dynamics in the Rashba-Hubbard model by quenching the interaction strength. We find that the quench dynamics within a sine-square methodology allows for the simulation of quasi-open systems by using the zero-energy edge states as a particle reservoir. Interaction quenches at half-filling show a tendency towards quench-induced spatial spin-magnitude inhomogeneity and a non-equilibrium system magnetization lower than equilibrium predictions, possibly related to a build-up of non-local correlations on the lattice., Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures