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Applying a small magnetic field to the quantum spin liquid state found in k-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 causes weak magnetism to form demonstrating the delicate nature of the quantum spin liquid state. Credit: Francis Pratt/ISIS/Science and Technology Facilities Council

20 March 2011

Quantum mapmakers complete first voyage through spin liquid

Scientists from two of Oxfordshire’s leading research centres have completed the painstaking and careful mapping of the features of one of the most exotic states of matter in the universe found close to absolute zero in a particular example of a chemical. The fruit of their five years of work is a unique and detailed map of this rare state of matter known as a ‘quantum spin liquid’. This strange state of matter was proposed to exist in the 1970s but has only recently been confirmed.

Team member