Phys.org  February 14, 2024 Altermagnets have a special combination of the arrangement of spins and crystal symmetries. The spins alternate, as in antiferromagnets, resulting in no net magnetization. Rather than simply canceling out, the symmetries give an electronic band structure with strong spin polarization that flips in direction as you pass through the material’s energy bands resulting in highly useful properties more resemblant to ferromagnets, as well as some completely new properties. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Colombia, UK) has proved the existence of altermagnetism. They provided the confirmation using photoemission spectroscopy and ab initio […]