The altermagnet candidate Mn5Si3 has attracted wide attention in the context of non-relativistic spin physics, due to its composition of light elements. However, the presumed structure of the altermagnetic phase had yet to be demonstrated. In this study, we demonstrate a hallmark of altermagnetism in Mn5Si3 thin films, namely the three options, or variants, for the checkerboard distribution of the magnetic Mn atoms. The magnetic symmetries were altered by field-rotation of the N\'eel vector along relevant crystal directions, resulting in anomalous Hall effect anisotropy. The experimental results in nanoscale devices were corroborated by a theoretical model involving atomic site dependent anisotropy and bulk Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction for a single variant.
@article{arxiv.2409.18691,
title = {Altermagnetic variants in thin films of Mn5Si3},
author = {Javier Rial and Miina Leiviskä and Gregor Skobjin and Antonín Bad'ura and Gilles Gaudin and Florian Disdier and Richard Schlitz and Ismaïla Kounta and Sebastian Beckert and Dominik Kriegner and Andy Thomas and Eva Schmoranzerová and Libor Šmejkal and Jairo Sinova and Tomáš Jungwirth and Lisa Michez and Helena Reichlová and Sebastian T. B. Goennenwein and Olena Gomonay and Vincent Baltz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.18691},
year = {2025}
}