Strong magnets put new twist on phonons: Rice lab’s RAMBO reveals unexpected influence on compound’s crystal lattice
Phonons are collective atomic vibrations, or quasiparticles, that act as the main heat carriers in a crystal lattice. Under certain circumstances, their properties can be modified by electric fields or light. But until now, nobody noticed they can respond to magnetic fields as well. That may be because it takes a powerful magnet. Rice University […]
Discovery unravels how atomic vibrations emerge in nanomaterials: Advances in microscopy reveal source of phonons’ puzzling behavior
A hundred years of physics tells us that collective atomic vibrations, called phonons, can behave like particles or waves. When they hit an interface between two materials, they can bounce off like a tennis ball. If the materials are thin and repeating, as in a superlattice, the phonons can jump between successive materials. Now there […]