Jhuma Sannigrahi

The EuAuBi crystal is like a layered cake of europium, gold, and bismuth atoms. When cooled to near absolute zero, three different magnetic patterns appear in sequence, like a kaleidoscope pattern shifting with a slight turn. First, the magnetic atoms align strictly in antiphase, then they tilt slightly, and at even lower temperatures, a third order emerges.

If you toss a handful of coins onto a table, they land in a jumble. But in some crystals, atoms arrange themselves into a pattern reminiscent of a woven basket — the kagome lattice. In the metal MgMn₆Sn₆, manganese atoms form such a lattice, and at room temperature they act like tiny magnetic needles.