Anisotropic light-tailored RKKY interaction in two-dimensional $d$-wave altermagnets

Abstract

Altermagnets are known in spintronics for their intrinsic spin-splitting and unconventional magnetic responses, particularly to magnetic impurities. However, effectively controlling the magnetic exchange interactions in altermagnets is challenging for practical applications. Here, we propose using circularly polarized light to tune the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction in two-dimensional $d$-wave altermagnets. Using the real-space retarded Green's functions approach, our results show that while the Heisenberg and Ising exchanges dominate, a notable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction also plays a key role. Furthermore, the inherent strength of altermagnetism imprints chirp-like signatures into the magnetic responses, which can be dynamically tuned via light. We mainly demonstrate that gate-induced Rashba spin-orbit coupling is essential in response to light -- light selectively and anisotropically adjusts the DM interaction without affecting the other exchanges. Our findings further indicate that rotating the altermagnet by $45^{\circ }$ relative to the light's polarization direction generates a Dirac-like dispersion and different DM interactions. We finally extract critical thresholds where light reverses DM interactions along one axis or balances both in-plane components. The anisotropic light-driven control of RKKY interactions in 2D altermagnets not only highlights their unique properties but also opens new avenues for engineering tailored magnetic characteristics in spintronic applications.

16 pages, 8 figures

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• Dynamical Generation of Higher-order Spin-Orbit Couplings, Topology and Persistent Spin Texture in Light-Irradiated Altermagnets
• Floquet engineering spin triplet states in unconventional magnets
• Cavity-induced coherent magnetization and polaritons in altermagnets
• Floquet-Engineered Chern Insulator in two-dimensional $d_{x^2-y^2}$-Wave Altermagnets
• Standard model of electromagnetism and chirality in crystals
• Josephson effects in the spin-triplet superconductor/altermagnet/spin-triplet superconductor junctions: the detection of the intrinsic $\mathbf{d}$-vector