The field of advanced materials evolves nowadays at a very high pace, bringing new understanding on a base of novel sophisticated mathematical and physical concepts. This is nice but also challenging, implies new ideas, skills and resources that researchers and particularly each new generation of young researches need to become familiar with, if not master.
In the last few years, a class of non-collinear antiferromagnets has been identified to allow spontaneous Hall Effect while presenting spin-split electronic bands and magnetic order parameter of higher multipolar order than dipolar spin moment. In an enlightening re-examination of spin symmetry analysis, a natural distinction of these materials from ferromagnets and other subclasses of antiferromagnets has emerged, leading to their denomination as ´altermagnets´.
Synchrotron-based x-ray techniques -such as X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) with Circular and Linear Dichroism contrast (XMCD & XMLD), as well as Angle-Resolved Photoelectron Emission spectroscopy (ARPES) and its spin-resolved variant (Spin-Resolved ARPES or shortly Spin-ARPES) in combination with theoretical simulations (DFT, DMT,...)- have been key to demonstrate the occurrence of altermagnetism on a handfull of materials, which constitute the very first examples of altermagnetic materials.
This schools aims to provide the theoretical concepts and resources empowering the new and young generation of researchers (also open to senior researchers) that want to get involved and contribute to the advances on this exciting and emerging field of altermagnetic materials and the enabling of altermagnetic spintronic or spin-orbitronic technologies.
The school offers a possibly primer opportunity to deepen your undestanding of altermagnetic materials with an introduction to their underlaying symmetry and physical concepts, completed with a practial hands-on in DFT, DMFT,crystal field, ligand-field and related simulations for synchrotron based X ray and electron spectroscopies (XAS, XMLD, XMCD, ARPES, spin resolved ARPES).
A final half-day miniworkshop, will foster the participation and networking of the assistants, and provide an outlook onto altermagnetic spintronics and devices.
The school will have two sessions, a larger or main first one in mid December, followed by a second session providing a more compact, to some extend deeper detail session on X-Ray spectroscopy simulations mid January. You can register for both or any of them. To facilitate as much as possible anyone´s assistance and in the spirit of a free and no-frontiers Science, the school registration is free (although limited in principle to 40 assistants for logistic reasons).
We hope you find the initiative interesting and worthy, and look forward to hosting you in Barcelona area, in the premises of the ALBA Synchrotron Light Source.
The organizers,
Manuel Valvidares1, Massimo Tallarida1, Maurits Haverkort2, Saroj Dash3, Oleg Jansen4, and Jeroen van den Brink4
1ALBA Synchrotron Light Source ; 2Heidelberg University ; 3Chalmers University of Technology ; 4IFW Dresden
