New Magnetic State

Herbertsmithite

Researchers at MIT recently discovered a new type of magnetism.  Science was already aware of two types of magnetism, ferromagnetism and anti-ferromagnetism, and this type is called Quantum Spin Liquid.  In this state, the material is a solid, but the magnetic orientations of the particles move like particles in a fluid.  This state of magnetism was proposed in theory in 1987, but has never been achieved in a lab setting until this experiment.  To do it, the team of scientist created a pure crystal of herbertsmithite, a process that alone took ten months, and used neutron scattering to record how excited the electrons were.  

 In the QSL state, the electrons had fractional quantum states, something that has never been seen before.  The team that discovered the magnetic state thinks that research into it could help in creating high-temperature superconductors, and develop better data storage methods.

Neutron Spectrometer used in the experiment

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/mit-researchers-discover-a-new-kind-of-magnetism-1219.html