Project description
New magnetic phase could transform spintronics applications
Magnetically ordered crystals are typically split into two phases: ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Funded by the European Research Council, the ALTERMAG project will explore a third basic magnetic phase, termed ‘altermagnetism’, which combines aspects of both ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Altermagnets demonstrate strong time-reversal symmetry breaking and spin splitting in electronic bands, characteristics typically seen in ferromagnetism, within crystals with antiparallel compensated magnetic order, a feature of antiferromagnetism. ALTERMAG will focus on identifying materials that exhibit altermagnetism and understanding its anisotropic nature. Project findings could open up a new avenue in spintronics, enabling the development of devices that leverage non-relativistic spin-conserving phenomena. ALTERMAG also aims to demonstrate altermagnetic giant-magnetoresistive multi-layer memory devices and single-layer nanoscale devices with logic-in-memory analogue functionalities.
Objective
Magnetically ordered crystals are traditionally divided into two basic phases -- ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. The ferromagnetic order offers a range of phenomena and device applications. The vanishing net magnetization in antiferromagnets is potentially favorable for spatial and temporal scalability of devices. Recently, our team and others have predicted instances of strong time-reversal symmetry breaking and spin splitting in electronic bands, typical of ferromagnetism, in crystals with antiparallel compensated magnetic order, typical of antiferromagnetism. Our central idea, resolving this apparent fundamental conflict in magnetism, is that symmetry classifies a third basic magnetic phase. Its alternating spin polarizations in both crystal-structure real space and electronic-structure momentum space suggest a term altermagnetism. We will demonstrate that altermagnets combine merits of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, that were regarded as principally incompatible, and have merits unparalleled in either of the two traditional basic magnetic phases. In Objective 1 we will establish materials landscape of altermagnetism and, in Objective 2, show how its anisotropic (d-wave) nature enriches fundamental physics concepts of lifted Kramers spin-degeneracy, Fermi-liquid instabilities and electron quasiparticles. This will underpin our development of a new avenue in spintronics, elusive within the two traditional magnetic phases, based on strong non-relativistic spin-conserving phenomena, without magnetization imposed scalability limitations, and with complex functionalities. In Objective 3 we will demonstrate altermagnetic giant-magnetoresistive multi-layer memory devices. In Objective 4 we will realize logic-in-memory analog functionalities in single-layer nano-scale devices via atomically-sharp altermagnetic domain walls, written by pulses scaled down to femtoseconds, and forming networks of self-assembled atomic-scale giant-magnetoresitive junctions.
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
182 21 Praha 8
Czechia