Revealing the Altermagnetism in Hematite via XMCD Imaging and Anomalous Hall Electrical Transport
(2025) In Advanced Materials 37(41).- Abstract
Altermagnets are a class of magnetic materials that exhibit unconventional transport properties, such as an anomalous Hall effect (AHE), despite having compensated sublattice magnetic moments. In this study, fundamental experimental evidence of the altermagnetic nature of hematite (α-Fe2O3), is reported combining electrical transport with advanced X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) imaging with linear and circular dichroism contrast. These measurements directly visualize the Néel vector's coupling to the crystal orientation, confirming hematite's altermagnetic order and its symmetry-driven transport behavior. The transport measurements reveal an anisotropic AHE with a pronounced crystal orientation... (More)
Altermagnets are a class of magnetic materials that exhibit unconventional transport properties, such as an anomalous Hall effect (AHE), despite having compensated sublattice magnetic moments. In this study, fundamental experimental evidence of the altermagnetic nature of hematite (α-Fe2O3), is reported combining electrical transport with advanced X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) imaging with linear and circular dichroism contrast. These measurements directly visualize the Néel vector's coupling to the crystal orientation, confirming hematite's altermagnetic order and its symmetry-driven transport behavior. The transport measurements reveal an anisotropic AHE with a pronounced crystal orientation dependence, including a sign inversion for specific Néel vector alignments. Supported by first-principles theoretical calculations, how the interplay between collinear spin and crystal symmetry breaking drives the observed AHE is explained. These findings establish hematite as an altermagnet, paving the way for experimental identification of altermagnetic materials and their integration into spintronic technologies.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-10-16
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- altermagnetism, anomalous Hall effect, hematite, XPEEM
- in
- Advanced Materials
- volume
- 37
- issue
- 41
- article number
- e05019
- publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:40728268
- scopus:105011936129
- ISSN
- 0935-9648
- DOI
- 10.1002/adma.202505019
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
- id
- 18fa0cc7-b87a-498c-a597-df35dc945584
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-29 15:12:25
- date last changed
- 2026-01-30 03:00:02
@article{18fa0cc7-b87a-498c-a597-df35dc945584,
abstract = {{<p>Altermagnets are a class of magnetic materials that exhibit unconventional transport properties, such as an anomalous Hall effect (AHE), despite having compensated sublattice magnetic moments. In this study, fundamental experimental evidence of the altermagnetic nature of hematite (α-Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>), is reported combining electrical transport with advanced X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) imaging with linear and circular dichroism contrast. These measurements directly visualize the Néel vector's coupling to the crystal orientation, confirming hematite's altermagnetic order and its symmetry-driven transport behavior. The transport measurements reveal an anisotropic AHE with a pronounced crystal orientation dependence, including a sign inversion for specific Néel vector alignments. Supported by first-principles theoretical calculations, how the interplay between collinear spin and crystal symmetry breaking drives the observed AHE is explained. These findings establish hematite as an altermagnet, paving the way for experimental identification of altermagnetic materials and their integration into spintronic technologies.</p>}},
author = {{Galindez-Ruales, Edgar and Gonzalez-Hernandez, Rafael and Schmitt, Christin and Das, Shubhankar and Fuhrmann, Felix and Ross, Andrew and Golias, Evangelos and Akashdeep, Akashdeep and Lünenbürger, Laura and Baek, Eunchong and Yang, Wanting and Šmejkal, Libor and Krishna, Venkata and Jaeschke-Ubiergo, Rodrigo and Sinova, Jairo and Rothschild, Avner and You, Chun Yeol and Jakob, Gerhard and Kläui, Mathias}},
issn = {{0935-9648}},
keywords = {{altermagnetism; anomalous Hall effect; hematite; XPEEM}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{10}},
number = {{41}},
publisher = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
series = {{Advanced Materials}},
title = {{Revealing the Altermagnetism in Hematite via XMCD Imaging and Anomalous Hall Electrical Transport}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202505019}},
doi = {{10.1002/adma.202505019}},
volume = {{37}},
year = {{2025}},
}
