What's New
For the first time, scientists have imaged an entirely new form of magnetism called altermagnetism.
The researchers used cutting-edge x-ray techniques to visualize and fine-tune this novel magnetic material, which is very different from the kind of magnets we know in day-to-day life.
Their findings, published in Nature, demonstrate that altermagnetic materials can be precisely controlled in microscopic devices, marking a major step forward in magnetic and material science.
Why This Matters
Magnetic materials are integral to modern technology, particularly in data storage and microelectronics, but they come with challenges, including energy and memory inefficiency.
Altermagnetic materials offer a greener alternative while combining the best features of existing magnetic classes—ferromagnets and antiferromagnets.
These new materials could dramatically enhance device performance, potentially increasing microelectronic and digital memory speeds by up to a thousand times. They also have the potential to advance fields like quantum computing, which is struggling to break free from highly specific applications in the lab.
Furthermore, this innovation could reduce dependency on toxic elements, significantly decreasing the carbon footprint of the electronics industry by increasing the energy efficiency of electronic devices.
What to Know
Ferromagnets, like the magnets commonly found on refrigerator doors, have all their magnetic moments aligned in the same direction, creating a strong external magnetic field.
In contrast, antiferromagnets feature alternating magnetic moments that cancel each other out at the macroscopic level, resulting in no external magnetic field—making materials of this kind ineffective for holding up your shopping list on the fridge.
Humans have known about ferromagnets for millennia, but antiferromagnets remained undiscovered until about a century ago.
"They lay hidden for so long because, to all intents and purposes, they look like non-magnetic material," Peter Wadley, co-author of the study, told Newsweek.
But now there's a new kid on the block: altermagnets.
"Altermagnetism is a newly defined class of magnetic material in which the magnetism appears invisible, but the properties are well defined and measurable," Oliver Amin, lead author of the study, told Newsweek.
Like antiferromagnets, altermagnets have antiparallel magnetic moments, which means they lack a macroscopic magnetic field. Yet they also exhibit a feature of ferromagnetism called time-reversal symmetry breaking.
According to Amin, this combination allows altermagnets to unite the best traits of both magnetic classes, opening up potential for innovative applications in advanced electronic devices.
In this new study, the researchers showed that manganese telluride (MnTe) is a ferromagnet as predicted and imaged it on the nanoscale.
"This is the first time that we've used those properties to image an altermagnetic structure in great detail," Wadley said. "So this is the first time that it kind of makes it real. Seeing is believing, and we can see that the altermagnetic order in reality is as predicted by theory."
But the team didn't stop there.
"To elevate this research, we showed that MnTe hosts interesting magnetic textures, and by making devices of certain shapes, we can choose exactly what textures form," Amin said. "This is a crucial step before making functional devices."
This is all very new to science—it was only earlier this year that scientists reported experimental evidence of altermagnets—and now this latest study has taken critical step forward, providing a blueprint for how these materials can be manipulated that others can work from.
From enhancing the performance of solid-state drives to enabling more efficient quantum computing, altermagnets could revolutionize how data is stored and processed.
The findings also highlight the potential for reduced material waste and energy use in electronics, making altermagnetic materials a promising avenue for sustainable technological progress.
What's Next
Next up for the team, Amin said, is to be able to use electrical currents to control the magnetic state of these materials: "That would be the next huge achievement, because that really is getting towards a proper functional device."
"As has been seen over the last year, interest in altermagnetism is taking off at an astonishing rate," he added. "With such an intense level of research in this field, I predict altermagnets will have a commercial impact within 5–10 years."
In the long run, Wadley believes that altermagnets could replace hard disk storage used in data centers across the globe. In the short term, he said to keep an eye out for more developments in the field in 2025.
He added, "I think that a lot will be coming in the next few years. It's probably the most vibrant area that I've seen in the 20 something years I've been doing research. I think there's a lot to come."
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about altermagnets? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Reference
Amin, O. J., Dal Din, A., Golias, E., Niu, Y., Zakharov, A., Fromage, S. C., Fields, C. J. B., Heywood, S. L., Cousins, R. B., Maccherozzi, F., Krempaský, J., Dil, J. H., Kriegner, D., Kiraly, B., Campion, R. P., Rushforth, A. W., Edmonds, K. W., Dhesi, S. S., Šmejkal, L., ... Wadley, P. (2024). Nanoscale imaging and control of altermagnetism in MnTe. Nature, 636(8042), 348–353. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08234-x
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