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News Article

Clear magnetic advantage

Spanish researchers have created a new ultra-light transparent magnetic material (Applied Physics Letters, Vol.82, pp.4307-4309). The scientists come from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Institut de Cienca de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) and the Universidad de Zaragoza.
Spanish researchers have created a new ultra-light transparent magnetic material (Applied Physics Letters, Vol.82, pp.4307-4309). The scientists come from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Institut de Cienca de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) and the Universidad de Zaragoza.

The team believes that the material could have interesting technological applications, such as creating new types of flat screens and magneto-optical memory devices.

The researchers have obtained the new ultra-light magnets by combining 99% porous silica aerogel with extremely fine magnetic particles composed of neodymium, iron and boron (Nd2Fe14B). These were orientated through a magnetic field during the material’s synthesis.

The new material retains the transparent and light properties of the aerogel, as well as the magnetic properties of the chemical composition. The magnets obtained by the researchers in the laboratory have a cylindrical shape about 1cm in diameter and several centimetres in length.

Previous magnetic aerogels have been too magnetically "soft" for information storage, restricting technological applications. "Softness" means that a weak external magnetic field could easily erase any information stored. The new material firmly retains the orientation of its magnetic field.

Because the new material transmits light, its properties could simplify the design of magneto-optical memory devices, which would eventually be read by a laser beam. Furthermore, the material can be transparent or opaque according to the direction in which it is observed, making it potentially useful for creating flat screens similar to LCDs.

The extremely porous composition give very low levels of thermal, electrical and sound conductivity with possible isolation applications.

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