{"id":58959,"date":"2025-11-11T20:09:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=58959"},"modified":"2025-11-12T13:03:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:33:45","slug":"altermagnetism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-11-2025\/altermagnetism","title":{"rendered":"Altermagnetism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Science and Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The discovery of altermagnetism has emerged<strong> as a new class of magnetic order.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Magnetism and Types<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Magnetism is a<strong> force of attraction or repulsion<\/strong> that <strong>acts between certain materials<\/strong> \u2014 mainly those containing iron, nickel, cobalt, or their alloys \u2014 due to the motion of electric charges (like electrons).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For more than a century, scientists recognized <strong>only two main types of magnetism:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ferromagnetism:<\/strong> All atomic magnetic moments (spins) align in the same direction, producing a strong external magnetic field \u2014 like a fridge magnet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Antiferromagnetism: <\/strong>Neighboring atomic spins point in opposite directions (\u201cup\u201d and \u201cdown\u201d), cancelling each other\u2019s fields and resulting in no external magnetism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Recently, researchers have <strong>discovered a third form,<\/strong> called <strong>altermagnetism<\/strong>, first theorized around 2019 and confirmed through experiments in 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Altermagnetism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is rotating or mirror-flipping the crystal pattern matches sites in cancelling pairs, <strong>leaving no net magnetisation<\/strong> \u2014 thus bridging the gap between other two types.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"d2d0d9\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Altermagnetism-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"altermagnetism\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-58961\" style=\"--dominant-color: #d2d0d9; width:452px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Altermagnetism-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Altermagnetism-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Altermagnetism-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Altermagnetism.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In altermagnets, the<strong> magnetic moments of neighbouring atoms point in opposite directions <\/strong>\u2014 one up, the next down \u2014 just like in <strong>antiferromagnets.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These opposite spins cancel each other, so the material shows<strong> no overall (net) magnetic field.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>However, their <strong>internal electronic structure<\/strong> resembles that of ferromagnets, where electrons have different energy levels depending on their spin.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This unusual combination of no net magnetisation but internal spin imbalance<strong> gives altermagnets unique properties.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Applications<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Quantum Computing:<\/strong> Altermagnets are also being explored for quantum computing applications.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Their lack of stray magnetic fields helps reduce magnetic noise, which is crucial for maintaining quantum coherence (stability of quantum bits).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Spintronics:<\/strong> These properties make them very attractive for spintronics \u2014 a technology that uses electron spin (not just charge) to store and process information, enabling faster, smaller, and more efficient electronics.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Wide Range of Materials:<\/strong> One of the most exciting findings is that altermagnetism can exist in many types of materials including insulators, semiconductors, metals, and possibly even organic crystals.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This opens vast opportunities for materials design and new device architectures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Material Quality: <\/strong>Producing high-quality, single-domain altermagnetic materials is a major hurdle.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fabrication and Scalability: <\/strong>Developing scalable and cost-effective fabrication methods is essential to use these materials in commercial electronic or spintronic devices.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This includes perfecting the crystal synthesis process for large-scale production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Limited Tested Materials: <\/strong>So far, only a few materials\u2014like manganese telluride (MnTe) and chromium antimonide (CrSb) have clearly shown altermagnetic effects.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Expanding the material library is a current focus of global research.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Despite these difficulties, the rapid progress of discoveries, strong global scientific interest, and ongoing experimental breakthroughs are all encouraging signs that these challenges can be overcome with time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>With continued progress in material design and fabrication, it holds promise to revolutionize next-generation information and quantum technologies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/altermagnetism-emerges-as-a-new-class-of-magnetic-order-what-is-it\/article70261367.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The discovery of altermagnetism has emerged as a new class of magnetic order.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Altermagnetism<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It is rotating or mirror-flipping the crystal pattern matches sites in cancelling pairs, leaving no net magnetisation \u2014 thus bridging the gap between other two types.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">In altermagnets, the magnetic moments of neighbouring atoms point in opposite directions \u2014 one up, the next down \u2014 just like in antiferromagnets.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-11-2025\/altermagnetism\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58992,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58959\/revisions\/58992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}