Concert of magnetic moments

(Forschungszentrum Juelich) An international collaboration between researchers from Germany, the Netherlands, and South Korea has uncovered a new way how the electron spins in layered materials can interact. In their publication in the journal Nature Materials, the scientists report a hitherto unknown chiral coupling that is active over relatively long distances. As a consequence, spins in two different magnetic layers that are separated by non-magnetic materials can influence each other even th...