Scientists Discover A Mysterious Transition In An Electronic Crystal

A cartoon illustrates a hysteresis—when the value of a physical property lags behind changes in the effect causing it—during hiking, with different uphill and downhill paths. Credit: Xinyue Lu

When temperature changes, many materials undergo a phase transition, such as liquid water to ice, or a metal to a superconductor. Sometimes, a so-called hysteresis loop accompanies such a phase change, so that the transition temperatures are different depending on whether the material is cooled down or warmed up.

In a new paper in Physical Review Letters, a global research team led by MIT physics professor Nuh Gedik discovered an unusual hysteretic transition in a layered compound called EuTe₄, where the hysteresis covers a giant temperature range of over 400 kelvins. This large thermal span not only breaks the record among crystalline solids, but also promises to introduce a new type of transition in materials that possess a layered structure.

These findings would create a new platform for fundamental research on hysteretic behavior in solids over extreme temperature ranges.

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