In a study published today in Nature Communications, researchers from the Quantum Magnetism group in the Department of Physics have developed an innovative approach to synthesise and study rare-earth magnetic materials. This achievement marks a significant advancement in understanding quantum magnetic states, potentially bringing the field closer to realising elusive quantum spin liquids.

In this study, researchers from a large international team including ANSTO, investigated the magnetic properties of two unique 2D triangular lattice antiferromagnetic materials (2D-TLHAF)* using various neutron scattering techniques.

Professor Igor Lesanovsky from the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Tübingen, Professor Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Professor Markus Hennrich from the University of Stockholm have been awarded a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Their research project uses quantum simulators consisting of electronically excited ion crystals to tackle unsolved questions in physics, but also to illuminate complex processes in chemistry, biology, and information processing. The ERC is providing funds of nearly EUR 10 million over a period of six years. Around EUR 3.5 million of these are earmarked for the research at JGU. With the Synergy Grants, the ERC supports a network of two to four research groups that contribute their different expertise to the joint work on challenging research questions. Funded projects are intended to conduct research at the interfaces between disciplines and lead to new findings at the frontier of current knowledge.

Researchers from Skoltech, the University of Warsaw, and the University of Iceland have demonstrated that by optical means it is possible to excite and stir the exciton-polariton condensate, which emits the linearly polarized light with polarization axis following the stirring direction. The rotation of the linear polarization of the emitted light directly corresponds to the stirring of the polariton spin. The speed of such modulation in time can reach GHz range, thanks to ultrafast dynamics of the polariton system. Remarkably, the team found that this precession occurs only at a specific resonant condition of the external stirring and internal system parameters. The work has been published in Optica.

Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University and the University of Tokyo have successfully used light to visualize tiny magnetic regions, known as magnetic domains, in a specialized quantum material. Moreover, they successfully manipulated these regions by the application of an electric field. Their findings offer new insights into the complex behavior of magnetic materials at the quantum level, paving the way for future technological advances.

Amulti-institutional team of scientists in the United States, led by physicist Peng Wei at the University of California, Riverside, has developed a new superconductor material that could potentially be used in quantum computing and be a candidate “topological superconductor.”

At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a group of scientists used neutron scattering techniques to investigate a relatively new functional material called a Weyl semimetal. This crystalline material hosts low-energy quasiparticles, which are atomic-scale properties treated as a particle. These Weyl fermions move very quickly in a material and can carry electrical charge at room temperature. Scientists think that Weyl semimetals, if used in future electronics, could allow electricity to flow more efficiently and enable more energy-efficient computers and other electronic devices.

The work, originating from ultrathin materials, could impact future electronics and establishes a new way to study these particles through a powerful instrument at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Research published earlier this month in the science journal Nature used NVIDIA-powered supercomputers to validate a pathway toward the commercialization of quantum computing. The research, led by Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi and Massimo Bernaschi, director of technology at the National Research Council of Italy and a CUDA Fellow, focuses on quantum annealing, a method that may one day tackle complex optimization problems that are extraordinarily challenging to conventional computers.

Researchers unveil the dynamical nature of emergent magnetic monopoles in real magnets for the first time.