Nitesh Kumar

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.

Inside every battery sloshes a liquid electrolyte, and how ions jostle within it determines how much energy the battery delivers and how long it lasts. Previously, peeking into that crowd meant either running long experiments or launching ultra-precise calculations that devour weeks of computer time.

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.