Insider Brief
University at Buffalo researchers have proposed a quantum sensing technique that could help identify altermagnets, a recently discovered class of magnetic materials that may enable faster and more energy-efficient electronics.
The method would use a magnetic defect in a diamond to detect distinctive spin patterns in suspected altermagnetic materials by measuring how the defect’s magnetic signal relaxes in different directions.
The sensing approach remains theoretical, but researchers say it could provide a less invasive way to study and verify altermagnetic materials, more than 200 of which have been predicted by theory.
An illustration of the atomic structure of altermagnets. Neighboring atoms are rotated and their magnetic spins are flipped. (Libor Šmejkal & Anna Birk Hellenes)
