The paper introduces the first theoretical description of ferroelectrically switchable altermagnetism.
Ferroelectric Switchable Altermagnetism has been included in the PRL Collection of the Year 2025 , an annual initiative of Physical Review Letters featuring some of the most significant Letters published across the various areas of physics. This distinction further confirms the importance of the work, which was published as an Editors’ Suggestion and also featured in Physics.
The study is the result of an international collaboration led by Alessandro Stroppa (CNR-SPIN) and Qihang Liu (Southern University of Science and Technology). It provides the first theoretical demonstration of how switching the ferroelectric polarization is accompanied by a reversal of the altermagnetic spin splitting, enabling electrical and non-volatile control of spin-polarized electronic states without reversing the Néel vector.
Among the main results of the work are the identification of the symmetry principles required to realize ferroelectric altermagnets, the screening of 2001 experimental magnetic structures contained in the MAGNDATA database, and the identification of 22 promising candidates. Two materials emerge in particular as reference platforms: the perovskite Ca3Mn2O7 and the MOF [C(NH2)3]Cr(HCOO)3. For the latter, theoretical calculations show that reversing the ferroelectric polarization changes the sign of the spin splitting and opens the way to fully electrically controlled spintronic devices. The MOF compound has already been reported to host a rich, though complex, coupling among multiple degrees of freedom, as highlighted in Refs.(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201101405 ; https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.201204738).
A particularly relevant aspect of the work is that it points to a promising research direction for altermagnetism in hybrid organic–inorganic systems, and in particular in MOFs, thereby extending altermagnetism beyond conventional inorganic materials. At the same time, it shows how this new physics can emerge even in material architectures characterized by high structural and functional complexity.
Reflecting the rapid impact of the study (92 citations in Web of Science and 160 in Google Scholar within one year), the article has also been designated as a Hot Paper and a Highly Cited Paper in Essential Science Indicators, two labels assigned by Clarivate to works ranking in the top 0.1% for recent citations and in the top 1% for citations within their field and publication year, respectively. Overall, this result consolidates the international relevance of a study that not only defines a new paradigm for altermagnetic control, but also lays the foundations for future ultralow-power spintronic memories and logic architectures governed solely by an electric field.
Paper info:
Ferroelectric Switchable Altermagnetism; Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 106802 – Published 13 March, 2025.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.106802
