AI agents uncover a room-temperature magnetic semiconductor hiding in a 1999 material
Opus 5.5 agents discover two room-temperature magnetic semiconductor candidates
A team of AI agents and a researcher used density functional theory to hunt for Luttinger-compensated magnets—antiferromagnets with zero net magnetism but spin-sorted electrons. They designed YBaMnFeO₅, a semiconductor with a 2.35 eV gap and spin windows of 1.0 eV and 1.4 eV, but its atoms scramble at synthesis temperatures. More promising: KV[Cr(CN)₆], first made in 1999, which calculations show has a 2.1 eV gap, spin windows of 2.6 eV and 1.6 eV, and magnetic order up to 376 K. Its spin sorting had been overlooked for decades.
This suggests that materials for the next step in spintronics may already exist, waiting to be recognized.