Scientists map 180 materials that split electron spins without magnets
Researchers have identified a new class of magnetic materials that manipulate electron spins using symmetry alone, without requiring expensive rare-earth elements or complex magnetic structures. The discovery could accelerate development of faster, more efficient computer chips and data storage devices by making spin-based electronics practical for mass production.
Originaltitel: High-throughput quantification of altermagnetic band splitting
<p>Altermagnetism represents a recently established class of collinear magnetism that combines zero net magnetization with momentum-dependent spin polarization, enabled by symmetry constraints rather than spin-orbit coupling. This distinctive behavior gives rise to sizable spin splitting even in materials composed of light, earth-abundant elements, offering promising prospects for next-generation spintronics applications. Here, we present a comprehensive high-throughput screening of the 2287 entries comprising the MAGNDATA database, integrating symmetry analysis with spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT) calculations to identify and characterize altermagnetic candidates. Our workflow investigates the collinear structures in the data set and collinear versions of the ones reported to be noncollinear, uncovering 180 materials exhibiting significant spin splitting, spanning both metallic and semiconducting systems. Detailed results for all 180 materials are compiled in a dedicated open-access database, but we also particularly discuss UCr<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>C, NbMnP, and YRuO<sub>3</sub> as representative cases with large spin splitting. Furthermore, comparison with the Computational 2D Materials Database (C2DB) and the AiiDA 2D repository gives 9 bulk altermagnets with chemically equivalent 2D counterparts linked to the same ICSD parent entry. Crucially, our momentum-resolved analysis reveals that the spin splitting varies strongly across the Brillouin zone, and that the maximal splitting tends to occur away from the high-symmetry paths, a result that directly informs and guides future photoemission experiments. By expanding the catalog of known altermagnets, this work lays a robust foundation for future experimental and theoretical advances in spintronics and quantum materials discovery.</p>