Altermagnetism and Altermagnets: A Brief Review

Recently, a new magnetic phase, termed altermagnetism, has caught the attention of the magnetism and spintronics community. This magnetic phenomenon differs from traditional ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. It generally lacks net magnetization and is characterized by unusual non-relativistic spin-splitting and broken time-reversal symmetry. This leads to novel transport properties, such as the anomalous Hall effect, the crystal Nernst effect, and spin-dependent phenomena. Spin-dependent phenomena such as spin currents, spin-splitter torques, and high-frequency dynamics emerge as key characteristics in altermagnets. This paper reviews the main aspects pertaining to altermagnets by providing an overview of theoretical investigations and experimental realizations. We discuss the most recent developments in altermagnetism and prospects for exploiting its unique properties in next-generation devices.