Probing chiral magnons in an altermagnet candidate

Altermagnetism defines the third class of magnets, showing characteristics of both antiferromagnetic (AFM) and ferromagnetic (FM) properties, and are therefore promising for spintronic applications. Due to unique symmetry considerations, altermagnets possess zero net magnetization, but nonrelativistic band splitting and chiral magnons, the direct observation of which remains a challenge. Here, we propose to use resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at Mn L3 edge with circular polarization to detect the dispersive chiral magnons in a two-dimensional altermagnet candidate La2O3Mn2Se2. Our experiment serves as one of the first attempts to directly probe chiral magnons and will help us to better understand this new class of magnets.