Materials with compensated magnetic order, such as antiferromagnets, offer distinct advantages, including faster dynamics and a broader selection of available materials. This has driven significant research in antiferromagnetic spintronics, leading to exciting discoveries. Recently, a new class of compensated magnets—altermagnets—has been identified, further expanding the potential of compensated magnetic materials [1,2]. Similar to spintronics, spin caloritronics has long been dominated by ferromagnets. However, in recent years, the potential of antiferromagnets has gained attention, particularly in the context of the anomalous Nernst effect [3,4]. In this talk, I will first discuss the advantages of compensated magnets for spin caloritronic research. I will briefly introduce the concept of altermagnetism and focus on some of the first experimental verifications of altermagnetic materials [5,6] and their spin caloritronic responses [7]. Finally, I will explore the implications of altermagnetism for magnon-mediated spin currents [8].

References:

[1] L. Smejkal et al., Phys. Rev. X 12, 040501 (2022)
[2] C. Song et al. Nature Reviews Materials 1696 (2025)
[3] Y. Pan et al., Nature Materials, 203–209 (2022)
[4] H. Reichlova et al., Nature Communications 10, 5459 (2019)
[5] R. D. Gonzalez Betancourt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 036702 (2023)
[6] H. Reichlova et al., Nat. Communications 15 (1), 4961 (2024)
[7] A. Badura et al., https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.12929
[8] M. Leiviska et al., arXiv:2501.19198