Researchers have experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, that it is possible to obtain from an altermagnet a spin current that can transport magnetic information. This result is supported by the theoretical model of electron transport developed by the CFM group. Altermagnets are a new class of materials that, despite not exhibiting the net magnetization characteristic of conventional magnets, can generate this type of current.

The result experimentally confirms a prediction made a few years ago by research groups in the Czech Republic and Germany, and represents an advance in the study of altermagnets and their potential for the development of new information storage and processing technologies.

The results of this study have been published in the journal Nature. The team includes CIC nanoGUNE’s Nanodevices Group, in collaboration with the Mesoscopic Physics Group of the Materials Physics Center (CFM) and research groups in the Czech Republic, Germany and France.