Physicists Observe Competition Between Magnetic Orders
Nature study: research team from the University of Bonn gains insights into novel quantum states
They are as thin as a hair, only a hundred thousand times thinner - so-called two-dimensional materials, consisting of only one layer of atoms, are booming in research. They became known to a wider audience in 2010 when two Russian-British scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of graphene, a building block of graphite. What is special about such materials is that they have novel properties that can only be explained with the help of quantum mechanical rules and that can be relevant for improved technologies. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now obtained new insights into previously unknown quantum states with the help of ultra-cold atoms. Their discovery: The magnetic orders between two coupled thin layers of atoms compete with each other.