Coexistence of ferroelectricity and altermagnetism in wurtzite vanadium oxide: a first-principles study
Аннотация
along the [001] direction, substantially higher than conventional perovskite ferroelectrics. The polarization switching process, with a moderate energy barrier of 0.71 eV per f.u., confirms its ferroelectric reversibility. Strikingly, reversing the ferroelectric polarization induces a complete reversal of spin character near the Fermi level, thereby electrically toggling the spin-resolved electronic structure without altering the total magnetization. These findings establish w-VO as a rare multiferroic altermagnet in which ferroelectric polarization and compensated spin order are intrinsically coupled. The ability to control spin polarization and spin Hall response through electric-field-driven polarization switching offers a new paradigm for non-volatile, field-free spintronic devices based on voltage-controlled spin functionality.