When it comes to layered quantum materials, current understanding only scratches the surface; so demonstrates a new study from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. Using advanced X-ray spectroscopy at the Swiss Light Source SLS, researchers uncovered magnetic phenomena driven by unexpected interactions between the layers of a kagome ferromagnet made from iron and tin. This discovery challenges assumptions about layered alloys of common metals, providing a starting point for developing new magnetoelectric devices and rare-earth-free motors.

Now, those researchers have determined why they were able to trounce the quantum computer at its own game. Their answer, presented on October 29 in Physical Review Letters, reveals that the quantum problem they tackled — involving a particular two-dimensional quantum system of flipping magnets — displays a behavior known as confinement. This behavior had previously been seen in quantum condensed matter physics only in one-dimensional systems.