New type of magnetism appears in a layered semiconductor
The magnetic properties of materials usually originate from exchange interactions between their electrons, but researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have now discovered a new type of magnetism that disobeys this rule. Known as kinetic magnetism, and previously only predicted theoretically, the new mechanism occurs in a regime where the strength of electron exchange interactions vanishes.
While the discovery is unlikely to lead directly to new devices, it could advance our understanding of materials like Mott insulators and other systems featuring strongly correlated electrons. external page =>