In a groundbreaking exploration of materials science, researchers from ETH Zurich have unveiled a revolutionary form of ferromagnetism within an artificially produced material, announced in a university release.
Spearheaded by Ataç Imamoğlu at the Institute for Quantum Electronics and Eugene Demler at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, the team's discoveries, recently detailed in Nature, shed light on a previously unknown mechanism driving magnetism.
To comprehend the magnetism observed in certain materials, one must consider the intricate interplay of physical effects. The alignment of magnetic moments in ferromagnetic materials, like iron or nickel, is typically attributed to the exchange interaction—a combination of electrostatic repulsion between electrons and quantum mechanical effects of electron spins. However, Imamoğlu and his team have now identified a new form of ferromagnetism in an artificially created material where the alignment of magnetic moments deviates from the conventional exchange interaction.
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