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An experiment conducted has revealed an unlikely behavior in a class of materials called frustrated magnets, addressing a long-debated question about the nature of these discontented quantum materials. The researchers tested the frustrated magnets -- so-named because they should be magnetic at low temperatures but aren't -- to see if they exhibit a behavior called the Hall Effect. When a magnetic field is applied to an electric current flowing in a conductor such as a copper ribbon, the current deflects to one side of the ribbon. This deflection, first observed in 1879 by E.H. Hall, is used today in sensors...

In the past 5 years, no material has excited more interest from condensed matter physicists than graphene, a sheet of carbon only one atom thick. Electrons zing through the stuff in an unusual way, and they flow so easily that graphene could someday replace silicon and other semiconductors as the material of choice for microchips. Now, a team of physicists has taken a key step in fulfilling graphene's promise as a hotbed of exotic physics by showing that the electrons within it can team up to behave like particles with a fraction of the electron's charge. The effect is called...

Menlo Park, Calif.—Move over, silicon—it may be time to give the Valley a new name. Physicists at the Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have confirmed the existence of a type of material that could one day provide dramatically faster, more efficient computer chips. Recently-predicted and much-sought, the material allows electrons on its surface to travel with no loss of energy at room temperatures and can be fabricated using existing semiconductor technologies. Such material could provide a leap in microchip speeds, and even become the bedrock of an entirely new kind of computing industry based...

Efforts by Stanford University and NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory to buy an unusual, bismuth-fueled electric propulsion system from Russia have hit a snag at NASA headquarters, where managers have concerns about the legality of the proposed deal, NASA officials said. American scientists hope to test the thruster inside a vacuum tank at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and then design their own version. The scientists want to learn whether a thruster fueled by bismuth, a metallic element that is fairly plentiful, has the durability to propel an unmanned probe on long voyages to the outer planets. The bismuth...