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Home > Press > Magnetism drives metals to insulators in new experiment: Study provides new tools to probe novel spintronic devices
An illustration of two domains (blue and orange) divided by a domain wall (white area) in a material. The magnetic order is designated with organized arrows (electron spins) while the colors represent two different domains (but the same magnetic order). In the material pictured here, the domain walls are conductive and the domains are insulating.
CREDIT
Yejun Fang
Abstract:
Like all metals, silver, copper, and gold are conductors. Electrons flow across them, carrying heat and electricity. While gold is a good conductor under any conditions, some materials have the property of behaving like metal conductors only if temperatures are high enough; at low temperatures, they act like insulators and do not do a good job of carrying electricity. In other words, these unusual materials go from acting like a
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Magnetism Drives Metals to Insulators in New Experiment
Like all metals, silver, copper, and gold are conductors. Electrons flow across them, carrying heat and electricity. While gold is a good conductor under any conditions, some materials have the property of behaving like metal conductors only if temperatures are high enough; at low temperatures, they act like insulators and do not do a good job of carrying electricity. In other words, these unusual materials go from acting like a chunk of gold to acting like a piece of wood as temperatures are lowered. Physicists have developed theories to explain this so-called metal-insulator transition, but the mechanisms behind the transitions are not always clear.