Researchers have uncovered a new twist in magnetism at the nanoscale.
The team at the National University of Singapore made the discovery while growing atomic layers of a manganite—which shows no magnetism—on a substrate crystal of nonmagnetic strontium titanate.
The manganite’s magnetism is switched on abruptly when the number of manganese atomic layers changes from 5 to 6 or more. Researchers suspect an avalanche of electrons from the top surface of the film falls to the bottom, where the electrons are confined near the substrate.
