A Third Form of Magnetism

SCIENTISTS HAVE RECENTLY CRAFTED and imaged a novel magnetic substance known as an altermagnetic material.

- Caroline Delbert

While some discoveries are theorized decades before they are finally made or observed, altermagnetism has arrived in reality over just a few years. And now, in a new paper, scientists show that they can tune these materials very precisely in order to create specific directions of magnetism. This work appears in the journal Nature.

In fact, they've been able to confirm a wild (but substantiated) theory: That altermagnetism could combine regular ferromagnetism with anti-ferromagnetism (as the names suggest, these were believed to be incompatible opposites). While it might not have much impact on your refrigerator magnet collection, for people who make superconductors and topological materials at near-absolute zero, this could be the next big thing.