Electricity and magnetism are often treated as separate forces in materials. In fact, they can sometimes interfere with each other.
But scientists from National Taiwan University have made an exciting discovery: in a special ultra-thin material, electricity and magnetism can actually cooperate in a very unusual and powerful way—even at room temperature.
The material studied is called Fe₅GeTe₂, a new type of two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnet.
That means it’s only a few atoms thick and still shows magnetic properties at room temperature—something that’s quite rare.
What makes Fe₅GeTe₂ even more unique is how its iron atoms behave. The same electrons that carry electric current are also responsible for the material’s magnetism. This unusual overlap allows electric and magnetic effects to interact more closely than in most materials.
Using an advanced imaging tool called scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), the researchers were able to zoom in and see what was happening at the atomic level. What they found was remarkable.
Three separate quantum effects—charge density waves (CDWs), the Kondo effect, and ferromagnetism—were all taking place in the same area. Even more amazing, they weren’t acting independently. Instead, they were synchronized in space, forming a shared repeating pattern.
This pattern is known as a √3 × √3 superlattice, and it’s organized by a particular type of iron atom in the material.
Seeing these three quantum states lined up together in harmony was something that scientists had only predicted before, but this study marks the first time it has been observed directly.
The discovery is a big step forward in the study of quantum materials. It challenges the traditional belief that electrical and magnetic properties must compete or stay separate. Instead, it shows that they can actually enhance each other under the right conditions.
According to lead researcher Professor Ya-Ping Chiu, this is the first time that atomic-scale cooperation between charge, spin, and complex quantum effects has been proven to exist in a 2D material that works at room temperature.
This breakthrough could open the door to new types of technology that rely on quantum properties—devices that are smaller, faster, and more powerful than those we use today.
Source: KSR.
