Post by HFML-FELIX

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐰𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐬 When you have a solid material, say a piece of iron, that material has a specific set of properties that defines it. For instance: a certain conductivity, a heat capacity, or it can be magnetic or not. However, if you have a single atom, or a small group of atoms from the same material, their properties can be very different from the material as a solid. Now think of a material you want to use or manipulate. Perhaps you want to make electronics of only a few layers of atoms thick. You first need to understand and predict the behaviour of this layer of atoms. However, this is something, especially when it comes to magnetism, that has been proven to be very hard. HFML-FELIX researchers have now published a paper in Physical Review Letters (the American Physical Society flagship journal), that adds important knowledge to what we know of the elusive magnetic properties of small groups of atoms. The full paper and more about this discovery can be found on our news page. Follow the link in the comments to get there.