New magnetic crystal could cut data center power by design

Florida State University researchers have engineered a crystalline material that behaves magnetically in ways that don't match conventional magnets—a discovery that could reshape how we build faster hard drives and more efficient quantum computers.

The team, reporting in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, found that when you combine two chemically similar materials with different crystal structures, something unexpected happens. The boundary between them creates what physicists call "frustration"—neither structure fully settles, and that instability generates entirely new magnetic patterns. The researchers deliberately chased this effect, and it worked.

The deliberate hunt

Michael Shatruk, a chemist at FSU, had a simple but clever idea: if two different crystal structures compete at their boundary, maybe their atomic spins would twist in response. "Let's find some structures that are chemically very close but have different symmetries," he said. The team picked manganese-cobalt-germanium and manganese-cobalt-arsenic—germanium and arsenic sit next to each other on the periodic table, so the compounds are nearly twins chemically but structurally distinct.

When the mixture solidified, the researchers found exactly what they were looking for: swirling patterns of magnetic spins called skyrmion-like spin textures. These aren't theoretical curiosities. Skyrmions are the current frontier in magnetic materials research because they can be moved with almost no energy cost.

That matters in the real world. In a data center running thousands of processors, even small reductions in power draw add up—lower electricity bills and less cooling needed. The same efficiency gains could help quantum computers stay stable, protecting the fragile quantum information from errors and noise.

Designing materials instead of hunting for them

Traditionally, the search for materials with useful magnetic properties works like a treasure hunt: physicists suspect certain materials might have the properties they want, then measure them to confirm. This research flipped the approach. By understanding why structural frustration creates these magnetic patterns, the researchers could predict where they'd appear and intentionally design new materials to have them.

"It's chemical thinking," Shatruk explained. "We're thinking about how the balance between these structures affects them, and how that might translate to the relation between atomic spins."

Graduate student Ian Campbell sees the practical payoff: "Traditionally, physicists hunt for known materials that already exhibit the symmetry they're seeking. But that limits possibilities. We're trying to develop a predictive ability to say, 'If we add these two things together, we'll form a completely new material with these desired properties.'" That predictive power means a wider ingredient list—cheaper, easier-to-grow crystals and a more reliable supply chain for whatever quantum or storage technologies come next.

The work points toward a future where materials aren't discovered by luck but designed by principle.