<p>X-ray and neutron diffraction are foundational tools for structure determination; however, their resolution limits can lead to misassignments in materials with subtle distortions. Here we demonstrate that nonlinear transport provides a powerful complementary approach to uncover hidden crystal symmetries, using Ca<sub>3</sub>Ru<sub>2</sub>O<sub>7</sub> as a case study. Below the magnetic transition at <i>T</i><sub>S</sub> = 48 K, our experiment reveals a previously overlooked lower-symmetry phase. This is evidenced by the emergence of longitudinal nonlinear resistance (NLR), indicating combined translational and time-reversal symmetry breaking, and thus rendering Ca<sub>3</sub>Ru<sub>2</sub>O<sub>7</sub> an altermagnetic candidate in terms of symmetry classification. DFT calculation suggests that the lower-symmetry phase arises from an extremely subtle lattice distortion (~0.1 pm) below <i>T</i><sub>S</sub>, below the detection limit of conventional diffraction. Moreover, NLR is accompanied by nonlinear Hall effect, both enhanced by the large quantum metric associated with Weyl chains. Our findings establish nonlinear transport as a sensitive probe of hidden symmetry breaking and highlight an alternative route to discovering altermagnetic states.</p>

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Probing hidden symmetry via nonlinear transport in an altermagnet candidate Ca3Ru2O7

  • Subin Mali,
  • Yufei Zhao,
  • Yu Wang,
  • Saugata Sarker,
  • Yangyang Chen,
  • Zixuan Li,
  • Jun Zhu,
  • Ying Liu,
  • Venkatraman Gopalan,
  • Binghai Yan,
  • Zhiqiang Mao

摘要

X-ray and neutron diffraction are foundational tools for structure determination; however, their resolution limits can lead to misassignments in materials with subtle distortions. Here we demonstrate that nonlinear transport provides a powerful complementary approach to uncover hidden crystal symmetries, using Ca3Ru2O7 as a case study. Below the magnetic transition at TS = 48 K, our experiment reveals a previously overlooked lower-symmetry phase. This is evidenced by the emergence of longitudinal nonlinear resistance (NLR), indicating combined translational and time-reversal symmetry breaking, and thus rendering Ca3Ru2O7 an altermagnetic candidate in terms of symmetry classification. DFT calculation suggests that the lower-symmetry phase arises from an extremely subtle lattice distortion (~0.1 pm) below TS, below the detection limit of conventional diffraction. Moreover, NLR is accompanied by nonlinear Hall effect, both enhanced by the large quantum metric associated with Weyl chains. Our findings establish nonlinear transport as a sensitive probe of hidden symmetry breaking and highlight an alternative route to discovering altermagnetic states.