A new route to materials with complex 'disordered' magnetic properties at the quantum level has been produced by scientists for the first time. The material, based on a framework of ruthenium, fulfils the requirements of the 'Kitaev quantum spin liquid state' -- an elusive phenomenon that scientists have been trying to understand for decades.

Published in Nature Communications, the study, by scientists at the University of Birmingham, offers an important step towards achieving and controlling quantum materials with sought-after new properties that do not follow classical laws of physics.

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