{"id":9564,"date":"2024-01-28T13:35:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T13:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=9564"},"modified":"2024-01-28T13:35:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T13:35:48","slug":"scientists-just-discovered-a-new-type-of-magnetism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=9564","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Just Discovered a New Type of Magnetism"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u201cThe very reason that we have magnetism in our everyday lives is because of the strength of electron exchange interactions,\u201d said study coauthor Ata\u00e7 \u0130mamo\u011flu<\/a>, a physicist also at the Institute for Quantum Electronics.<\/p>\n

However, as Nagaoka theorized in the 1960s, exchange interactions may not be the only way to make a material magnetic. Nagaoka envisioned a square, two-dimensional lattice where every site on the lattice had just one electron. Then he worked out what would happen if you removed one of those electrons under certain conditions. As the lattice\u2019s remaining electrons interacted, the hole where the missing electron had been would skitter around the lattice.<\/p>\n

In Nagaoka\u2019s scenario, the lattice\u2019s overall energy would be at its lowest when its electron spins were all aligned. Every electron configuration would look the same\u2014as if the electrons were identical tiles in the world\u2019s most boring sliding tile puzzle<\/a>. These parallel spins, in turn, would render the material ferromagnetic.<\/p>\n

When Two Grids With a Twist Make a Pattern Exist<\/p>\n

\u0130mamo\u011flu and his colleagues had an inkling that they could create Nagaoka magnetism by experimenting with single-layer sheets of atoms that could be stacked together to form an intricate moir\u00e9 pattern (pronounced mwah-ray<\/em>). In atomically thin, layered materials, moir\u00e9 patterns can radically alter how electrons\u2014and thus the materials\u2014behave. For example, in 2018 the physicist Pablo Jarillo-Herrero and his colleagues demonstrated<\/a> that two-layer stacks of graphene gained the ability to superconduct when they offset the two layers with a twist.<\/p>\n

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