Researchers achieve electrical reading of magnetic information in altermagnets

A research team led by CIC nanoGUNE, in collaboration with the Mesoscopic Physics Group at the Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM) and research groups from the Czech Republic, Germany, and France, has experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to obtain a spin current from an altermagnet capable of transporting magnetic information.

Altermagnets represent a new class of materials that, unlike conventional ferromagnets, do not possess a net magnetization but can still generate spin currents. This discovery confirms a theoretical prediction made several years ago and was published in the journal Nature.

The ability to read magnetic information electrically from these materials could lead to the development of magnetic memories that are denser, faster, and less vulnerable to external magnetic fields that might otherwise alter stored data.