If antiferromagnets, altermagnets, and other emerging quantum materials are to be harnessed for spintronic devices, physicists will need to better understand the spin dynamics in these materials. One possible path forward is to exploit the duality between electric and magnetic dynamics expressed by Maxwell’s equations. From this duality, one could naively expect mirror-like similarities in the behavior of electric and magnetic dipoles. However, a profound difference between the quantized lattice electric excitations—such as phonons—and spin excitations—such as paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin resonances and magnons—has now been unveiled in terms of their corresponding contributions to the static electric susceptibility and magnetic permeability. Viktor Rindert of Lund University in Sweden and his collaborators have derived and verified a formula that relates a material’s magnetic permeability to the frequencies of magnetic spin resonances [1]. Whereas a well-established formula for the dielectric function—the electric equivalent of magnetic permeability—features a quadratic dependence on phonon frequencies, the new magnetic formula features a linear dependence on magnetic frequencies. Just as significant as the formula itself is the way in which it was validated, using a new optical technique that is set to be broadly useful for characterizing spintronic materials.
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