Behold the Impossible: 'Hall Effect' in Frustrated Magnets Witnessed for the First Time

Princeton researchers did the impossible when they showed a characteristic magnetic phenomenon in a class of materials that were not known to possess such traits.

According to Science Codex, researchers studying 'frustrated magnets', a class of materials that ought to behave as magnets when subjected to very low temperatures, but do not, found that they could indeed be made to display magnetic trait of Hall Effect. The Hall Effect is a phenomenon where currents in a conductor is deflected due to a magnetic field.

To show the Hall Effect, researchers developed crystals of materials called pyrochlores which can show magnetic traits at very low temperatures but have been proven to not show such traits due to their quantum nature.

Researchers passed current through the crystals at extremely low temperature of 0.5 degree Kelvin. When a magnetic field was applied perpendicular to the current, it deflected current. The researchers repeated the experiment by reversing direction of current and the magnetic field only to notice a deflection in the opposite direction.

"All of us were very surprised because we work and play in the classical, non-quantum world. Quantum behavior can seem very strange, and this is one example where something that shouldn't happen is really there. It really exists," said N. Phuan Ong, a professor of physics at Princeton.

The experiment has researchers excited as it has better understanding of phenomenon like quantum entanglement that one day can help build quantum computers.