[HN Gopher] Physicists Magnetize a Material with Light
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Physicists Magnetize a Material with Light
Author : thunderbong
Score : 86 points
Date : 2025-01-07 17:54 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.mit.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.mit.edu)
| physicsguy wrote:
| > scientists believe antiferromagnetic materials could be a more
| robust alternative to existing magnetic-based storage
| technologies
|
| Scientists working on interesting anti-ferromagnetic materials
| need a justification for doing so under the crazy grant system we
| operate, more like.
|
| The downside of antiferromagnetic data storage, or skyrmion
| storage, or any of the other various ideas recently, is that
| reading the data is very difficult even if it is present, to the
| point of making a real world device pretty much practically
| impossible. I know, I also worked on this sort of thing before
| leaving academia!
| reillys wrote:
| Knowledge in itself is good. We don't need everything to have a
| direct commercial application. In fact most discoveries by
| their nature do not have directly applicable commercial
| applications.
| nick__m wrote:
| I agree and I am sure physicguy also agree but, alas, those
| who manage the grants system frequently don't.
| lukan wrote:
| Because those who pay for the taxes frequently don't. So
| some justification needs to happen to spend other peoples
| money. A better way would be nice, though.
| westmeal wrote:
| Divert a percentage of military spending to a pool of
| money for scientists to use.
| lukan wrote:
| What do the taxpayers say?
|
| (Me I say yes! But I learned, I usually do not represent
| a majority)
| thecoppinger wrote:
| Here's an excellent lecture that drives this point home:
|
| "Physics in the Interest of Society Lecture 2019: John
| Parmentola"
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx-55BhuFks
| qoez wrote:
| Maybe the outlandish future star trek etc promised will come into
| fruition after all
| anthk wrote:
| Current Physics look like a Zorkian/Discworldian tale.
| Terr_ wrote:
| At least for Discworld, I'd argue the causation was the other
| way around: The books parodied real things, often injecting a
| fantastic aspect with the subtext of "All you people in the
| real world should be a lot more amazed at what's going on
| here."
|
| For example, "hyphenated silicon" (semiconductor doping)
| involved in how rock trolls think, and the catch-all
| explanation of "because quantum."
| anthk wrote:
| Zork adventures too. They parodied learning system
| commands/programming with in-game spells.
| okwhateverdude wrote:
| > the team worked with FePS3 -- a material that transitions to an
| antiferromagnetic phase at a critical temperature of around 118
| kelvins (-247 degrees Fahrenheit). > [...] > They placed the
| sample in a vacuum chamber and cooled it down to temperatures at
| and below 118 K.
|
| I feel like this massive caveat was buried half way through the
| article. This is why I dislike university press. I mean, the
| wizardry is impressive, but it isn't gonna revolutionize anything
| anytime soon if it requires a vacuum and liquid Krypton-ish
| temperatures.
| hanniabu wrote:
| Could be useful in space where those are the default conditions
| chongli wrote:
| Space is a fantastic insulator. Space suits for astronauts
| have to be cooled, not heated.
| Tade0 wrote:
| It's not that bad - 118K is slightly above the boiling point of
| LNG(~112K), so achievable at scale.
| mjfl wrote:
| It's basic research
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| >but it isn't gonna revolutionize anything anytime soon
|
| Reminds me of CCD. Back in the day CCD only worked effectively
| at liquid nitrogen temperatures; a couple of decades of
| development and you could have one in a pocket camera.
|
| Maybe that's what you meant.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| So it works at room temperature in low earth orbit.
| floxy wrote:
| Because of solar radiation, you have to take special measures
| with heat shields, etc, to achieve low temperatures in low
| earth orbit.
|
| https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_.
| ..
| kolanos wrote:
| Could it have a practical use in space? Which is both already a
| vacuum and close to absolute zero temperature wise?
| skywal_l wrote:
| Tractor beam!
| busyant wrote:
| Given your comment, you may like this:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers
| neuroelectron wrote:
| Terahertz radiation falls in between infrared radiation and
| microwave radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum, and it
| shares some properties with each of these. I find it weird they
| used this term throughout the article.
| kleiba wrote:
| Gotta love the picture of the three, because it is not staged.
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| Isnt all light terahertz light?
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