Extent of distinct optical behavior across the altermagnet class

Determine the extent to which altermagnets—collinear magnets with alternating spin splitting and zero net magnetization—exhibit distinct behavior in optical magnetism across the material class, including whether light-induced spin and orbital magnetization responses show class-wide features beyond those observed in specific compounds such as RuO2 and CoF2.

Background

Altermagnets combine compensated collinear magnetic order with strong alternating spin splitting and are predicted to host unconventional phenomena. While several transport properties have been explored, the broader implications for optical magnetism remain unsettled. The authors paper RuO2 and CoF2 as representative rutile altermagnets and uncover large light-induced orbital and spin moments, but the generality of these findings across the class is not established.

Clarifying whether altermagnets as a class share distinct optically induced magnetization features would guide materials selection and the development of opto-magnetic applications, including potential switching and probing of altermagnetic states.