RAMBO tagged posts

Strong Magnets put New Twist on Phonons

Rice University postdoctoral researcher Andrey Baydin prepares to run an experiment at RAMBO, the Rice Advanced Magnet with Broadband Optics, a tabletop spectrometer that allows materials to be cooled and exposed to high magnetic fields. The instrument helped uncover a phenomenon by which nonmagnetic phonons can be manipulated by a magnetic field. Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Rice lab’s RAMBO reveals unexpected influence on compound’s crystal lattice.
Phonons are collective atomic vibrations, or quasiparticles, that act as the main heat carriers in a crystal lattice. Under certain circumstances, their properties can be modified by electric fields or light. But until now, nobody noticed they can respond to magnetic fields as well.

That may be because it takes a powerful magnet.

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