Observation of the anomalous Nernst effect in altermagnetic candidate Mn5Si3

Abstract

Abstract The anomalous Nernst effect generates a voltage transverse to an applied thermal gradient in some magnetically ordered systems. While the effect was considered excluded in compensated magnetic materials with collinear ordering, in the recently identified symmetry-class of altermagnets, the anomalous Nernst effect is possible despite the compensated collinear spin arrangement. In this work, we show that epitaxial Mn5Si3 thin films grown on Si manifest an anomalous Nernst effect with a finite spontaneous signal at zero magnetic field despite the vanishing spontaneous magnetization. We attribute this to the previously theoretically predicted and experimentally corroborated altermagnetism of epitaxial Mn5Si3 thin films grown on Si. The observed spontaneous anomalous Nernst coefficient reaches the value of 0.26 μV/K with the corresponding spontaneous Nernst conductivity of 0.22 A/(K  ⋅  m). To complement our measurements, we perform density-functional theory calculations of the momentum-resolved anomalous Nernst conductivity, highlighting the contributions of altermagnetic pseudonodal surfaces and ladder transitions to the Berry curvature. Our results illustrate the value of unconventional d-wave wave altermagnets composed of abundant and non-toxic light elements for thermo-electrics and spin-caloritronics.