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2024-11-11

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New Scientist: The existence of a new kind of magnetism has been confirmed (www.newscientist.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Thanks!