Expt 10) Antiferromagnetism — the original “hidden order”
Anshul Kogar
Ferromagnetism is a state of matter whose existence has been known for millennia (Fe3O4 supposedly was the first known permanent magnet, but is actually a ferrimagnet). Coincidentally, it was also the material that took center stage in Expt 8 in this series of posts. Antiferromagnetism is, in some sense, “hidden order”. Although predicted in 1932 by Louis Neel, it was not apparent how to convincingly demonstrate that spins could align antiparallel to one another when the magnetic moments p