Newly discovered magnetic phase: A brief review on Altermagnets

Recently, a new magnetic phase, termed altermagnetism, has caught the attention of the magnetism and spintronics community. This newly discovered magnetic phenomenon differs from traditional ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetic. 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 that cannot be fully explained by traditional magnetic theories. 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, its comparison to other magnetic orders, and future prospects for exploiting its unique properties in next-generation devices.