July 2016

Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University discovered that gold can be magnetized - and this magnetization is induced by the heat flow driven by a temperature change.

The researchers demonstrated this by a simple experiment that used a thin film of gold on top of a block of Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) - an insulator magnet. The researchers made sure that the temperatures of the gold and the YIG were different, and they then applied a magnetic field parallel to the heat flow. The Hall voltage (measured in the gold film by in-plane electric current), showed a clear proportional dependence on the applied temperature gradient.

Researchers from MIT, NIST, Carnegie Mellon University and the Beijing Institute of Technology demonstrated a new hybrid compound that is both intrinsically (exotic) magnetic and has a topological character.

Crystals of Gadolinum, platinum and bismuth

The compound, made from gadolinium, platinum, and bismuth, is an antiferromagnet, and it exhibits the largest Berry phase corrections to electronic behavior to date.

Researchers from EPFL discovered that carbon "nanospheres" can be an effective platform to control electron spin. Experiments have shown that such carbon spheres can control an electron spin at even 27 degrees Celsius. 

The researchers say that in carbon nanospheres, the electron spin is retaied for 175 nano seconds. This is the longest time ever measured in any material of a comparable size.