Strain-Tunable Shift Current and Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect in Multiferroic Altermagnet Fe2Mo3O8
Abstract
Altermagnetism has recently emerged as a compelling frontier in spintronics, seamlessly merging the agile tunability of ferromagnets with the hallmark merits of antiferromagnets. As a prototypical polar multiferroic featuring distinctive altermagnetism, Fe2Mo3O8 hosts an ideal playground for exploring the intricate interplay among ferroelectric polarization, altermagnetic order, and spin-dependent responses. Here, employing first-principles calculations, we systematically investigate the coupling among polarization, spin splitting, shift current, and magneto-optical responses in Fe2Mo3O8. Our findings reveal that switching the ferroelectric polarization not only inverts the sign of the shift current but also comprehensively reshapes the momentum-space spin-splitting texture. Furthermore, the shift current and magneto-optical spectrum exhibits strong tunability under mechanical strain. Remarkably, the application of a-axis uniaxial strain breaks the crystalline symmetry, thereby activating a finite magneto-optical Kerr effect that is otherwise forbidden in the pristine phase.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.12799,
title = {Strain-Tunable Shift Current and Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect in Multiferroic Altermagnet Fe2Mo3O8},
author = {Shengqiao Wang and Bo Zhao and Harish K. Singh and Jiahao Xie and Fu Li and Hongbin Zhang and Yang Su and Chen Shen and Lijun Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.12799},
year = {2026}
}