In altermagnetic materials, atoms form a regular pattern with alternating spin and spatial orientation at adjacent magnetic sites in the crystal.
Atoms with opposite magnetic moment are in altermagnets coupled by crystal rotation or mirror symmetry. The spatial orientation of magnetic atoms may originate from the surrounding cages of non-magnetic atoms.  The opposite spin sublattices in altermagnetic manganese telluride (MnTe) are related by spin rotation combined with six-fold crystal rotation and half-unit cell translation. In altermagnetic ruthenium dioxide (RuO), the opposite spin sublattices are related by four-fold crystal rotation.