Physicists Discover New Magnetoelectric Effect

Lukas Weymann in the lab at TU Wien Copyright: TU Wien Copyright: TU Wien - In a very unusual way, the electrical and magnetic properties of a particular crystal are linked together - the phenomenon was discovered and explained at TU Wien (Vienna). Electricity and magnetism are closely related: Power lines generate a magnetic field, rotating magnets in a generator produce electricity. However, the phenomenon is much more complicated: electrical and magnetic properties of certain materials are also coupled with each other. Electrical properties of some crystals can be influenced by magnetic fields - and vice versa. In this case one speaks of a "magnetoelectric effect". It plays an important technological role, for example in certain types of sensors or in the search for new concepts of data storage. A special material was investigated for which, at first glance, no magnetoelectric effect would be expected at all.