A small mechanical squeeze changed magnetic structures and electrical behavior in two materials being studied as altermagnet candidates, according to a report from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The findings suggest that strain could offer researchers a way to control magnetic materials considered for future electronics, though the report describes material-level experiments rather than a working device.
The ORNL team examined tiny crystals of manganese telluride and iron sulfide. Researchers placed each between two titanium plates and gently compressed it, then used neutron diffraction at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source to inspect the magnetic structure. The report says the pressure changed the relative populations of magnetic domains: regions within a material that have particular magnetic arrangements.
That shift matters because magnetic domains can affect how a material behaves. The report also describes a change in the anomalous Hall effect, an electrical phenomenon, as evidence that squeezing influenced the materials’ electrical behavior. It does not specify the size or direction of that change, so the account supports a link between applied strain and electrical response without quantifying its practical strength.
The work is reported across two studies, one in Advanced Materials and one in Physical Review X. The cited Advanced Materials paper is titled “Uniaxial Strain Tuned Magnetism of the Altermagnet Candidate H-FeS”; the Physical Review X paper is “Strain-Tunable Anomalous Hall Effect in Hexagonal MnTe.” ORNL neutron scientist Feng Ye is identified as a coauthor on both. The report also identifies Pengcheng Dai of Rice University, a former ORNL neutron scientist, as discussing how domain control can influence transport behavior.
The broader interest is spintronics, which uses electron spin as well as electrical charge to process or store information. The report says suitable materials, potentially including altermagnets, could contribute to technologies such as wireless communication and quantum computing. Those are possible future applications: the described experiments do not demonstrate a spintronic product or establish how the effects would perform in a device.
The reported result is a demonstration that relatively simple mechanical strain can be used to shift magnetic-domain populations in these candidate materials, with a related change in an electrical effect. Further work would need to establish how reliably and usefully that control can be applied. <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/11/261101010541.htm">Source: A tiny squeeze dramatically changes the magnetism of exotic materials</a>