Physicists Discover a Strange New Form of Magnetism Within Magnetic Graphene
9 FEBRUARY 2021
From childhood, we are taught that the world exists in three physical dimensions. That s true, for the most part, but it skips over something quite fascinating: the strange two-dimensional world of nanoscale materials, like the wonder material graphene.
Graphene and its engineered, single-layer counterparts do in fact exist in three dimensions, albeit just barely – sitting right on the fringe, atomically speaking. That s because these so-called 2D materials are only one atom thick, embodying an incredible structural thinness that lends them all sorts of weird powers.
Now, in a new study led by physicists from the University of Cambridge, scientists have pulled off the same kind of magnetic feat with a different two-dimensional material called iron phosphorus trisulfide (FePS
Researchers have identified a new form of magnetism in so-called magnetic graphene, which could point the way toward understanding superconductivity in this unusual type of material.