• @[email protected]
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    3410 months ago

    Altermagnets are pretty interesting because their most defining feature is not the magnetic order in the materials. They look like ordinary antiferromagnets where the spins of adjacent atoms point in opposite direction and compensate each other, so no large magnetic fields are created. What differentiate altermagnets from antiferromagnets is how the electrons with different spin behave. When pulling current through altermagnets it will consist of purely spin up electrons along one crystal axis and purely spin down along orthogonal crystal axes. Thus the spin currents have a ‘alternating’ pattern, giving the name altermagnet. This is primarily exciting for the field of ‘spintronics’ which is all about creating technologies using spin currents.

    Not all altermagnets are equally interesting, many antiferromagnets can be reclassified to altermagnets but they are generally insulating. (fun fact the first ever measured and textbook antiferromaget MnF2 is actually altermagnetic) So materials discovery of new altermagnets is important to find metallic, semi-metallic or even super conducting altermagnets.

    • @dlpkl
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      2510 months ago

      Hmm yes, I understand.

      • @Klear
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        10 months ago

        A four-year-old child could understand this! Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.

        • @[email protected]
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          510 months ago

          Magnet atoms magnet at magnet direction. Altermagnet magnet at 90° magnet direction. Antiferrous magnet magnet at 180° direction

          (That’s my takeaway at least)

    • @bfg9k
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      310 months ago

      I made it to ‘spins of adjacent atoms’ and went cross-eyed

  • @Alivrah
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    2110 months ago

    Altermagnets, how do they work???

  • @angrystego
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    610 months ago

    So if I understand correctly, both antiferromagnets and altermagnets can be packed together very tightly, unlike ferromagmets, which makes them potentionally better for use in computers. I didn’t really get the advantage altermagnets have compared to antiferromagnets and why they’re more suitable for spintronics. I’d appreciate if anyone could ELI5.

    • @[email protected]
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      410 months ago

      Imagine there are two balls, a red and a blue. You want to communicate to your friend rolling the only blue ball to them. In a ferromagnet there are only blue balls, in an antiferromagnet the blue and red balls are glued together and in an altermagnet there are both balls but they go in different directions so you just need to orient yourself correctly.

      The antiferromagnet can’t be used for spintronics, the ferromagnet can but big magnetic field disturb other parts in a circuit.

  • @mods_are_assholes
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    410 months ago

    This is a science community covering a world class discovery and every fuckdamn comment is a meme or joke.

    Fuck this community, blocked along with every yahoo in the thread.

  • @RizzRustbolt
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    410 months ago

    We barely understand the kind we’ve already got. Now they’re adding more?

  • @SmokumJoe
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    310 months ago

    Magnetism is real observable magic

  • @Nastybutler
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    -410 months ago

    They didn’t even mention animal magnetism

    • @Plopp
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      -410 months ago

      I keep misreading things as anal magnetism.