Content overview: “Uranium Compound UTe2 Reveals Hidden Spiral Magnetic Structure, Paving Way for Quantum Com”. Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have discovered that a uranium-based compound known since the 1960s, uranium ditelluride (UTe2), harbors a hidden spiral magnetic structure with unusual properties. This spiral, or helical, arrangement of magnetic moments gives the material a rare combination of properties, including unconventional superconductivity and the potential to host Majorana fermions—exotic particles that could serve as qubits in future quantum computers.
Julia Chan, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UT Dallas, and her colleagues, was published in the journal Nature Physics. The team used neutron scattering experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to reveal the spiral magnetic order, which had eluded detection for decades because it exists only in a narrow temperature range and is easily disrupted by impurities. The full version stays on the original page, which this listing opens directly.