ATUALIDADES

PROJETO “WATCHING THE WORLD” (2024) 

No. 05 Prof. Daniel Nícolas 2024

February 14, 2024 Altermagnets, theorised to exist but

never before seen, have been measured for the first time
and they could help us make new types of magnetic
computers.
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 PROJETO “WATCHING THE WORLD” (2024)
THE EXISTENCE OF A NEW KIND OF MAGNETISM HAS BEEN CONFIRMED
A new kind of magnetism has been measured for
the first time. Altermagnets, which contain a blend
of properties from different classes of existing
magnets, could be used to make high capacity and
fast memory devices or new kinds of magnetic
computers.
Until the 20th century, there was thought to be only one kind of permanent
magnet, a ferromagnet, the effects of which can be seen in objects with
relatively strong external magnetic fields like fridge magnets or compass
needles.
These fields are caused by the magnetic spins of the magnets’ electrons
lining up in one direction.
But, in the 1930s, French physicist Louis Néel discovered another kind of
magnetism, called antiferromagnetism, where the electrons’ spins are
alternately up and down. Although antiferromagnets lack the external
fields of ferromagnets, they do show interesting internal magnetic
properties because of the alternating spins.
Then in 2019, researchers predicted a
perplexing electric current in the crystal
structure of certain antiferromagnets, called
the anomalous Hall effect, which couldn’t be
explained by the conventional theory of
alternating spins. The current was moving
without any external magnetic field.
It seemed, when looking at a crystal in terms of sheets of spins, that a third
kind of permanent magnetism might be responsible, which has been called
altermagnetism. Altermagnets would look like antiferromagnets, but the
sheets of spins would look the same when rotated from any angle. This
would explain the Hall effect, but no one had seen the electronic signature
of this structure itself, so scientists were unsure whether it was definitely a
new kind of magnetism.
Now, Juraj Krempasky at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen,
Switzerland, and his colleagues have confirmed the existence of an
altermagnet by measuring the electron structure in a crystal, manganese
telluride, that was previously thought to be antiferromagnetic.
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PROJETO “WATCHING THE WORLD” (2024)
THE EXISTENCE OF A NEW KIND OF MAGNETISM HAS BEEN CONFIRMED
To do this, they gauged how light bounced off
manganese telluride to find the energies and speeds
of the electrons inside the crystal. After mapping
out these electrons, they were found to almost
exactly match the predictions given by simulations
for an altermagnetic material.
The electrons seemed to be split into two groups, which allows them more
movement inside the crystal and is the source of the unusual altermagnetic
properties. “This gave direct evidence that we can talk about altermagnets
and that they behave exactly as predicted by theory,” says Krempasky.
This electron grouping seems to come from the atoms of tellurium, which
is non-magnetic, in the crystal structure, which separate the magnetic
charges of the manganese into their own planes and allow the unusual
rotational symmetry.
“It’s really nice verification that these materials do exist,” says Richard
Evans at the University of York, UK. As well as the electrons in
altermagnets being freer to move than those in antiferromagnets, this new
type of magnet also doesn’t have external magnetic fields like in
ferromagnets, says Evans, so you can use them to make magnetic devices
that don’t interfere with each other.
The property could boost the storage on computer hard drives, because
commercial devices contain ferromagnetic material that is so tightly
packed that the material’s external magnetic fields start to see interference
– altermagnets could be packed more densely.
The magnets could even lead to spintronic
computers that use magnetic spin instead of current
to perform their measurements and calculations,
says Joseph Barker at the University of Leeds, UK,
combining memory and computer chips into one
device. “It maybe gives more hope to the idea that
we could make spintronic devices become a reality,” says Barker.
(New Scientist)