magnetism tagged posts

The sample was gently squeezed in a copper holder to insure a uniform alignment at low temperature. Credit: Image courtesy of RIKEN

By understanding how these materials superconduct at relatively high temperature, they can eventually learn enough to make materials that superconduct close to room temperature. It is known that superconductivity arises when pairs of electrons are “paired.” With traditional superconductors, this pairing arises due to vibrations of the ions in the structure...

Atoms (shown in green and blue) are held in a trap of laser light (red) in which they can move in one dimension only. The atoms can point either up (green) or down (blue), similar to a needle in a compass. When the atoms do not interact, they can move freely in the trap (top picture); they have no discernible order. When repulsive interactions between the atoms are strong (bottom picture), they arrange themselves in the trap, with each atom pointing in the opposite direction of its neighbour.

Physicists have used ultracold atoms to imitate the behavior of electrons in a solid. Researchers have devised a new way to study the phenomenon of magnetism...

The research revealed an abrupt magnetic transition brought about by the slightest change in thickness of the layer. Materials with exceptional electronic and magnetic properties are of great importance for many apps. A particularly versatile class of materials are the ‘perovskite oxides’.

Twente University researchers have discovered a special effect relating to the magnetism of one of such perovskite-oxides; lanthanum-manganese-oxide. This material consists of stackings of LaMnO3 unit cells, quite comparable to stacking of LEGO but the building blocks are only 0.4nm in size.

The new discovery is that the magnetism in these layers is switched on abruptly when the number of LaMnO3 building blocks changes from 5 to 6...