Experimental evidence of altermagnetism in a layered material opens a promising path toward future spintronics

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: To build the ultrafast computers of the future, scientists are looking beyond the electrical charge of electrons to another property: their spin. While conventional hardware relies on the movement of charge to process data, tapping into this intrinsic quantum property could enable researchers to reinvent how information travels through a circuit.

Now, a team led by UCF physics professor Madhab Neupane has identified a promising candidate. Neupane and his collaborators found evidence of altermagnetism, an emerging form of magnetism that combines useful characteristics of two more familiar types: ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Their paper is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Ferromagnetism produces the behavior most people associate with everyday magnets. In these materials, magnetic moments align in the same direction, creating a magnetic field. That property can be useful in electronics, but the resulting stray magnetic fields can interfere with nearby components.

Antiferromagnets behave differently. Their magnetic moments point in opposing directions and cancel one another out, largely avoiding stray fields. However, they lack some of the useful electronic properties found in ferromagnets.

Altermagnets offer another possibility by combining desirable characteristics of both. Like antiferromagnets, they can avoid producing unwanted stray magnetic fields. But they can also generate and detect spin currents—the movement of electron spins through a material—that researchers hope to use for future electronics.

Neupane and his collaborators experimentally identified signatures of this unusual magnetic state in Co₁/₄TaSe₂, a layered material containing magnetic cobalt atoms. The discovery gives researchers a versatile platform for studying altermagnetism and could help advance future electronic and spintronic technologies. "These materials are distinguished from more conventional antiferromagnets by their ability to generate and detect spin currents without the negative effect of producing stray fields," Neupane says.