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Scientists Discover a New Kind of Magnet (ieee.org)
Wave723 shares a report from IEEE Spectrum: A new kind of magnet, theorized for decades, may now have been experimentally proven to exist. And it could eventually lead to better data storage devices. In a normal magnet, the magnetic moments of individual grains align with each other to generate a magnetic field. In contrast, in the new "singlet-based" magnet, magnetic moments are temporary in nature, popping in and out of existence. Although a singlet-based magnet's field is unstable, the fact that such magnets can more easily transition between magnetic and non-magnetic states can make them well-suited for data storage application. Specifically, they could operate more quickly and with less power than conventional devices, says Andrew Wray, a materials physicist at New York University who led the research. Now, Wray and his colleagues have discovered the first example of a singlet-based magnet that is robust -- one made from uranium antimonide (USb2). "It ends up taking very little energy to create spin excitons for uranium antimonide," Wray says. "This is essential for the singlet-based magnet, because if it took a lot of energy, then there wouldn't be enough spin excitons to condense, stabilize one another, and give you a magnet." The research has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
How do they work?
TL;DR - Not a monopole (Sadly)
So our hard drives will be coated with uranium antimonide? That sounds like fun.
We have finally found a place to dump all the nuclear waste! It's going to our next gen data centers!
I see a glowing future ahead of us.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I can't wait for USB sticks to come in 12" thick lead-lined concrete cases with free shipping from Alibaba.
Let's see the delivery guy try throwing that package across the front yard.
High temperature singlet-based magnetism from Hund’s rule correlations
Not paywalled. Thank you very much, Nature.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
It sounds like this is some pretty basic science. If the only material this is somewhat stable in is Uranium Antimonide, we're still a long way from applications. Basically they found a new mechanism by which electrons in this rare material create magnetism. It looks like cool quantum mechanics, but not the path to near term applications.