Since the discovery of magnetism, there have been all sorts of upwardly mobile discoveries made by scientists, enthusiasts, and intellectuals. Recently, scientists from the University of Alabama (UAB) made yet another interesting discovery — “semi-metal” crystals that exhibit an exotic spiral magnetism, presenting an opportunity to create better information storage devices.  Typically, magnetic storage technology, like a hard disc, needs to create a magnetic field, but this crystal would allow us to store information without “applying or detecting” a magnetic field. 

The Discovery

The crystal is made of repeating unit cells, as well as silicon, aluminum, and neodymium atoms; however, one side has a different pattern than the other. Weyl electrons, perhaps an “equally exotic” type of electron, move diagonally across the top of cells, affecting the magnetic spin orientation of the neodymium atom. These electrons have a special property — a spin-direction lock, pointing parallel or antiparallel to their direction of motion. As they move along neodymium atoms, the spins reorient to what the research team calls a “spiral,” which is anomalous behavior.  This unusual structure conducts electricity but makes electrons behave as massless particles whose magnetism is linked to the direction of their motion. In other materials, Weyl electrons have shown new behavior linked to electrical conductivity. In this case, they result in these spirals.  According to the scientists who analyzed the new crystals at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), each loop of the spiral, which only appears in cold temperatures, is roughly 150 nanometers long. They say that there are materials with similar physical properties that could function at room temperature, which could be used to create fast and robust magnetic memory and storage devices.  Since we live in an era of people who increasingly rely on better information storage devices — phones, laptops, iPads, etc. — this is exciting news. 

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