Date/Time Date(s) - 23/09/202610:30 am - 11:30 am
BSB 108
Dr. Jeff Rau Associate Professor University of Windsor
Title: Altermagnetism: A symmetry-based perspective Abstract:
Magnetically ordered materials are often divided into two broad classes: ferromagnets, which have a net magnetization, and antiferromagnets, which do not. However, recent work has shown that, in the non-relativistic limit, this classification is incomplete. It overlooks a qualitatively different type of compensated collinear order now called “altermagnetism.” Like conventional antiferromagnets, altermagnets have vanishing net magnetization. Unlike conventional antiferromagnets, their crystal and spin symmetries allow momentum-dependent spin splitting, chiral magnetic excitations, and response functions more commonly associated with ferromagnets. By combining distinct features of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, altermagnets are promising for applications in spintronics, where electron spin is used to process and store information efficiently.
In this talk, I will survey the emerging field of altermagnetism and describe my contributions to the effort to understand this new class of magnetic systems. I will focus on the symmetry principles that distinguish altermagnets from conventional ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, the phenomenology that follows from those symmetries, and recent experiments aimed at revealing altermagnetic signatures in real materials.