Searching for spin liquids: Much-sought exotic quantum state of matter can exist
Friday, August 12, 2011 - 16:30
in Physics & Chemistry
The world economy is becoming ever more reliant on high tech electronics such as computers featuring fingernail-sized microprocessors crammed with billions of transistors. For progress to continue, for Moore's Law -- according to which the number of computer components crammed onto microchips doubles every two years, even as the size and cost of components halves -- to continue, new materials and new phenomena need to be discovered. Researchers have now discovered a "kaleidoscope" of phases, which represent the lowest-energy states that are allowed given the magnetic interactions.