Altermagnetism revealed by polarized neutrons in MnF2
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Updated: Oct 31, 2026

Preparation of Fungal and Plant Materials for Structural Elucidation Using Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Solid-State NMR
Published on: February 12, 2019
Quentin Faure1, Dalila Bounoua1, Victor Balédent2,3
1Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Abstract:
Altermagnets are compensated magnets with symmetry-enforced spin split bands. Direct spectroscopic evidence for their existence has been reported in several materials. For example, inelastic neutron scattering (INS) has recently been used to witness a splitting of magnon bands in MnTe that is compatible with altermagnetism. Here, we present polarized INS results on MnF2 showing that it is altermagnetic. Our data reveal a splitting coming from the long-range dipolar coupling. Furthermore, using a domain-biased sample, the data reveal a nonzero chirality in the neutron scattering cross section that reverses the sign between the two magnon modes. It is this feature that clearly demonstrates altermagnetism in MnF2. This finding highlights the potential for polarized INS to characterize altermagnets through its sensitivity to fine structure in magnon spectra.
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