Fragility of the magnetic order in the prototypical altermagnet RuO2

Altermagnetism is increasingly gaining attention and RuO${}_{2}$ thin films have been arguably the most popular altermagnetic candidate. However, most publications miss a disturbing fact: direct experiments indicate the absence of any sizable ordered magnetism in stoichiometric bulk samples. Here, the authors confirm, through first-principles calculations, that the bulk samples are indeed far from ordered magnetism, but intrinsic hole doping strongly enhances the tendency to magnetism, suggesting an interesting possibility that the measured thin films may be magnetically different from stoichiometric bulk RuO${}_{2}$.