Researchers Confirm Chirality in Altermagnets
Two Science papers identify manganese fluoride and manganese telluride as altermagnets using handedness as a test.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Materials Science
Two papers published in Science identify manganese fluoride and manganese telluride as altermagnets, a magnetic class proposed in 2022 that mixes traits of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets. The researchers used chirality, or handedness, as the test, and found signatures of that pattern in both materials.
Why it matters
Earlier evidence for altermagnetism, including photoemission, nanoscale imaging, and a neutron study, left room for other explanations. Chirality offers a more direct signature, and controlling it could in principle carry spin information without moving electrons.
The studies used circularly polarized X-rays at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, for manganese telluride and polarized neutrons at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee for manganese fluoride. Altermagnets have no net magnetization and no stray field, and whether the chirality pattern holds in other candidate materials remains open.
The players
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
A U.S. Department of Energy research facility in California that operates large-scale X-ray science instruments.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
A U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory in Tennessee that hosts the Spallation Neutron Source.
The details
Daniel Jost and colleagues at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory determined handedness in manganese telluride, while Quentin Faure and colleagues at the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin used polarized neutrons to study manganese fluoride. Both teams found signatures of the chirality pattern in their samples.
Timeline
2022: The altermagnet magnetic class was proposed.
November 5, 2026: Two Science papers on altermagnets were published.
The Big Picture
Manganese fluoride was one of the first materials used to observe antiferromagnetic order with neutrons, so reclassifying it as an altermagnet revisits a foundational case in magnetism research. The chirality test offers a way to distinguish altermagnets from the antiferromagnets that long defined the field's older taxonomy.
Chirality-based control of magnetic states could eventually support spintronic devices that carry information with less energy loss than conventional electronics. The practical timeline for such devices is not established in the source findings.
The takeaway
Chirality may give researchers a clearer way to identify altermagnets than indirect signatures did before. Whether it becomes a usable design tool will depend on follow-up work in other materials.
Further reading
Explore more in Materials Science, where altermagnet research sits alongside other work on magnetic and quantum materials.
