A team of physicists led by UCF Professor Madhab Neupane has discovered experimental evidence of altermagnetism in a material called Co1/4TaSe2, a development that could advance the field of spintronic computing. Altermagnetism represents a newly recognized form of magnetism that merges beneficial characteristics from two established magnetic states: ferromagnetism, where magnetic moments align in the same direction to produce an overall magnetic field, and antiferromagnetism, where magnetic moments point in opposite directions and cancel each other out.
Conventional computing systems rely on the movement of electrical charge to process information, but researchers increasingly believe that another fundamental electron property—spin—could provide an alternative mechanism for information transport and processing. If scientists can master control over electron spin, they may create computing approaches that operate at higher speeds while consuming significantly less energy. The key challenge has been developing materials that can effectively generate and detect spin currents while avoiding unwanted side effects. Ferromagnets can create stray magnetic fields that interfere with nearby components, a growing problem as devices become more compact. Antiferromagnets eliminate this interference but lack certain electronic properties needed for technological applications. Altermagnets, by contrast, operate without producing stray magnetic fields while simultaneously generating and detecting spin currents.
Neupane’s team employed angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to examine electron behavior within Co1/4TaSe2. This technique measures electron energy and motion to reconstruct electronic structure. Initial measurements revealed distinctive splitting in the material’s electronic bands, and follow-up spin-resolved analysis showed that separated electronic states displayed opposite spin polarizations—a hallmark signature of altermagnetism. The layered structure of the material proved particularly valuable, as individual sheets are weakly connected and can be separated and recombined into thin structures suitable for emerging technologies.
The discovery opens pathways for multiple applications, including ultrafast memory devices, terahertz networks, and energy-efficient electronics. The material’s tunability allows researchers to modify it while observing how changes affect both electronic and magnetic properties. As electronic devices continue miniaturizing, the combination of layered altermagnets’ thin, adjustable structures with spintronic principles could enable new computing paradigms that harness electron spin while avoiding magnetic interference from conventional ferromagnets.
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