Vanadium Tetrafluoride as a Candidate Altermagnet: A First-Principles Approach

Altermagnetism (AM) is a recently discovered magnetic ordering that combines characteristics of both ferromagnets (FMs) and antiferromagnets (AFMs). Two-dimensional vanadium tetrafluoride (VF4) has been proposed as a candidate altermagnet. In this study, we employ first-principles methods using the DFT codes Quantum ESPRESSO and SIESTA to investigate the magnetic properties of VF₄, focusing on spin-split band structures in AFM configurations and quantum transport characteristics. We find that both monolayer VF₄ (with a 20 Å vacuum layer) and bulk VF4 exhibit non-relativistic spin splitting along a general k-path when configured antiferromagnetically, indicating that spin splitting is a robust feature of this material in both 2D