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A promising pairing: Scientists demonstrate new combination of materials for quantum science

Quantum information scientists are always on the hunt for winning combinations of materials, materials that can be manipulated at the molecular level to reliably store and transmit information. Following a recent proof-of-principle demonstration, researchers are adding a new combination of compounds to the quantum materials roster.

In a study reported in ACS Photonics, researchers combined two nanosized structures—one made of diamond and one of lithium niobate—onto a single chip. They then sent light from the diamond to the lithium niobate and measured the fraction of light that successfully made it across.

The greater that fraction, the more efficient the coupling of the materials, and the more promising the pairing as a component in .

Rare electronic states appear in five-layer graphene

Ferroicity and multiferroicity

Ferroic materials are those that exhibit a spontaneous ordering of their electric, magnetic or structural properties. The best-known example of ferroicity is ferromagnetism, in which the magnetic moments of a material all point in one direction, but other types of ferroic ordering are possible. In ferroelectricity, for example, it is the electric polarization that spontaneously orders itself, while ferroelastic materials display spontaneous strain.

Multiferroicity occurs when several properties of a material have their own individual preferred states. For example, a magnetic multiferroic material might have magnetic moments that point in one direction, and electric charge that also shifts in a certain direction. Importantly, the two phenomena are independent of each other.

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