IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v401y1999i6749d10.1038_43634.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A ferromagnet having no net magnetic moment

Author

Listed:
  • H. Adachi

    (the University of Tokyo
    Institute of Materials Structure Science, KEK)

  • H. Ino

    (the University of Tokyo
    College of Engineering, Hosei University)

Abstract

Coupling between the spins (magnetic moments) of assemblies of ions can lead to ordered magnetic systems—classified as ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic and so forth, depending on the nature of the ordering1. A simple picture of the coupling and ordering is usually adequate for describing properties of these systems, such as the magnitude and thermal variation of the magnetization. Here we describe a system whose magnetic behaviour appears counterintuitive on the basis of this picture. The materials in question are based on the ferromagnetic compound, SmAl2, in which some of the magnetic samarium ions, Sm3+, have been substituted with other rare-earth elements. The resulting system exhibits the seemingly incompatible properties of large spin polarization but no bulk magnetization: this state occurs at a specific temperature, when the two components of the magnetization (the electron's spin and its orbital motion) exactly compensate for one another. This property should be generic to ferromagnets containing trivalent samarium ions, and may find potential application in, for example, spin-resolving devices for charged particles.

Suggested Citation

  • H. Adachi & H. Ino, 1999. "A ferromagnet having no net magnetic moment," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6749), pages 148-150, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:401:y:1999:i:6749:d:10.1038_43634
    DOI: 10.1038/43634
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/43634
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/43634?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:401:y:1999:i:6749:d:10.1038_43634. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.