“These materials are very interesting because theorists think the tendency for spins to align is still there, but, due to a concept called geometric frustration, the spins are entangled but not ordered,” Ong said. Entanglement is a key property of quantum systems that researchers hope to harness for building a quantum computer, which could solve problems that today’s computers cannot handle.
A chance conversation in a hallway between Cava and Ong revealed that Cava had the know-how and experimental infrastructure to make such materials. He tasked chemistry graduate student Krizan with growing the crystals while Hirschberger, a graduate student in physics, set up the experiments needed to look for the Hall Effect.
“The main challenge was how to measure the Hall Effect at an extremely low temperature where the quantum nature of these materials comes out,” Hirschberger said. The experiments were performed at temperatures of 0.5 degrees Kelvin, and required Hirschberger to resolve temperature differences as small as a thousandth of a degree between opposite edges of a crystal.
For the full article: https://blogs.princeton.edu/research/2015/04/03/frustrated-magnets-new-experiment-reveals-clues-to-their-discontent/