Magnetism, one of the oldest technologies known to humans, is at the forefront of new-age materials that could enable next-generation lossless electronics and quantum computers. Researchers led by Penn State and the university of California, San Diego have discovered a new 'knob' to control the magnetic behavior of one promising quantum material, and the findings could pave the way toward novel, efficient and ultra-fast devices.
Tiny vibrations of atoms, or phonons, in the material may be one way to achieve this, the scientists reported April 8 in the journal"Phonons are tiny atomic wiggles -- atoms dancing together in various patterns, present in all materials," Padmanabhan said."We show that these atomic wiggles can potentially function as a knob to tune the magnetic bonding between the atomic layers in manganese bismuth telluride.
"Using temperature and magnetic field to vary the magnetic structure of the material -- much like using a refrigerator magnet to magnetize a needle compass -- we found that the phonon intensities were strongly correlated with the magnetic structure," said Maxwell Poore, graduate student at UC San Diego, and co-author of the study.
Further research is needed to directly use the magnetic knob, the scientists said. But if that can be achieved, it could lead to ultra-fast devices that can efficiently and reversibly control lossless currents.