# Physicists confirm altermagnetism as a third kind of magnetism

> A SLAC-led team has used polarised X-rays to show that manganese telluride is an altermagnet, settling a long-running question and opening doors for faster, more efficient electronics.

- Published: 2026-10-30 by Tickety-Boo News
- Section: Science
- Location: United States and France
- Web page: https://ticketyboonews.co.uk/stories/physicists-confirm-altermagnetism-as-a-third-kind-of-magnetism/
- Original report: [Confirming altermagnetism: A geometric twist offers experimental proof](https://phys.org/news/2026-10-altermagnetism-geometric-experimental-proof.html) (Phys.org)

## In brief

- A SLAC-led team has experimentally confirmed altermagnetism as a third type of magnetism, alongside ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism.
- Polarised X-rays at the ESRF in France revealed a chiral signal in manganese telluride.
- Altermagnets could help build faster, more stable spintronic electronics for memory devices and data centres.

Physicists have produced conclusive experimental proof of a third basic form of magnetism, ending a long period in which only two types were recognised in materials without outside influence. The team, led by the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has published its findings in the journal Science.

The newcomer is called altermagnetism. The researchers confirmed that manganese telluride, a compound that was treated as an antiferromagnet for decades, is in fact an altermagnet, with qualities of both of the older classes.

To see why that is surprising, it helps to know the old rules. In ferromagnets, every electron spin points the same way, producing a magnetic field you can observe. In antiferromagnets, identified in 1933, the spins alternate and cancel out. Altermagnets alternate too, but with a twist: the crystal lattice around the "up" spins is rotated relative to the lattice around the "down" spins.

That geometry was thought to give altermagnets a distinct "handedness", known as chirality, which ordinary antiferromagnets lack. Until now, nobody had seen it directly. The team took its sample to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, where one beamline can produce highly controlled polarised X-rays.

Chiral materials scatter left-handed and right-handed X-rays differently, so the researchers compared the two. They found a clear chiral signal that should not exist in a conventional antiferromagnet. The first experiment was completed in 2024 and repeated in early 2025, with the same result, which is a rather reassuring way to check one's work.

The practical prize lies in spintronics, which uses an electron's spin as well as its charge to store and move information. Ferromagnets are too easily disturbed by stray magnetic fields, while antiferromagnets are so hard to detect that reading their data is difficult. "Altermagnets combine the best of both," said lead author Daniel Jost.

They have zero net magnetisation, which keeps them stable, yet they can still generate the spin-polarised currents needed to extract information. Next, the researchers plan to explore how altermagnetic states can be influenced and controlled with light and electricity.

## Why it matters

Magnetism underpins how computers store data, and the old two-category picture limited what spintronic designers could do. Confirming that altermagnets are real gives engineers a new class of material to work with, one that could lead to faster, sturdier devices that use less power in memory and data centres. It is also a pleasing reminder that a textbook idea can still be rewritten.