Odd angles make for strong spin-spin coupling

Illustration by Motoaki Bamba/Kyoto University - Rice physicists' RAMBO reveals magnetic phenomenon useful for quantum simulation and sensing Sometimes things are a little out of whack, and it turns out to be exactly what you need. That was the case when orthoferrite crystals turned up at a Rice University laboratory slightly misaligned. Those crystals inadvertently became the basis of a discovery that should resonate with researchers studying spintronics -based quantum technology. Rice physicist Junichiro Kono , alumnus Takuma Makihara and their collaborators found an orthoferrite material, in this case yttrium iron oxide, placed in a high magnetic field showed uniquely tunable, ultrastrong interactions between magnons in the crystal. Orthoferrites are iron oxide crystals with the addition of one or more rare-earth elements. Magnons are quasiparticles, ghostly constructs that represent the collective excitation of electron spin in a crystal lattice. What one has to do with the other is the basis of a study that appears , where Kono and his team describe an unusual coupling between two magnons dominated by antiresonance , through which both magnons gain or lose energy simultaneously.