Physicists solve magnetic “mystery”
Physicists claim a breakthrough in explaining a rare property of an exotic magnetic material; potentially ease the path to magnetic refrigeration.
The work, led by University of Connecticut professor Jason Hancock, and IgnaceJarrige of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, is said to mark a major advance in the search for practical materials that will enable several types of next-generation technology. From information storage to magnetic refrigeration, many of tomorrow’s most promising innovations rely on sophisticated magnetic materials, and this discovery is said to open the door to harnessing the physics that governs those materials.
The work is related to the Kondo Effect, a physical phenomenon that explains how magnetic impurities affect the electrical resistance of materials. The researchers were looking at a material called ytterbium-indium-copper-four (YbInCu4)…