Physicists managed to discover a new magnetoelectric effect

As you know, electricity and magnetism have a pretty close relationship. After all, working high-voltage power lines form an electromagnetic field, and the magnets rotating in the generator start the process of generating electricity. But this connection is much more complicated than it seems at first glance, because there is an electrical and magnetic connection in some materials.

So the electrical properties are influenced by magnetic fields and vice versa. In this situation, they speak of the "magnetoelectric effect", which plays an extremely important role in some devices.

First experiments with unique material

The research group of the Vienna University of Technology conducted a study of a material for which, at first glance, the magnetoelectric effect was impossible.

The so-called langasite, a crystal consisting of lanthanum, gallium, silicon and oxygen, which is additionally doped with holmium atoms, has been thoroughly studied.

At the same time, the experiments carried out showed that the magnetoelectric effect is also observed in this material. It just works differently from the usual algorithm.

As it turned out, even a very slight change in the direction of the magnetic field can change the electrical properties of the material in the opposite state.

But the whole catch is that, according to the theory, the magnetoelectric effect cannot be observed in this material, since the langasite crystal lattice is ideally symmetric.

For reference. The relationship between electrical and magnetic properties depends on whether the crystal has internal symmetry or not. So if in a crystal of a substance one side of the crystal is a mirror image of the other side, then in such a material, according to theoretical calculations.

But as experiments have shown, if you increase the strength of the magnetic field, then something unusual happens, and it is the holmium atoms that change their initial quantum state and acquire a magnetic moment. This moment breaks the ideal symmetry of the crystal.

Of course, from the point of view of geometry, the crystal under consideration has also remained perfectly symmetric, but it is only necessary to take into account the magnetism of atoms. But he just changed and thereby broke the symmetry.

It turns out that the electric polarization of the crystal can change not due to the influence of the magnetic field, but due to the magnetoelectric effect and the electric field.

But the unique properties of the magnetoelectric effect did not end there. It turns out that if the direction of the magnetic field is slightly changed, then the polarization can be completely reversed.

In other words, it is enough to slightly rotate the magnetic field to make it possible to change the electric polarization of the crystal.

This is a completely new form of the magnetoelectric effect, which has not been observed anywhere else.

What are the prospects of opening

Any discovery should be beneficial. Scientists plan to continue experiments and test whether an electric field is capable of changing electrical properties. If the new experiment succeeds, then, using the new principle, it will be possible to implement a completely new type of solid-state memory.

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