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How to Turn Carbon into a Magnet

This is extremely useful in future applications, since carbon is a main component in many industrial branches. "With carbon, we know how to make things very small," said Ohldag. "On the other hand we know a lot about how to process and store information using magnetism. This opens up the door for future studies that will lead to improved magnetism in carbon that could one day we will be able to combine the ˇ®magnetic' and the ˇ®carbon' world."

The first observations of carbon displaying magnetic properties were made on a meteorite found in 1999, but the close proximity to nickel has cast doubt on carbon's ability.

What the team did was to apply a beam of protons that would disrupt and align a portion of the electrons in samples of pure carbon, thus magnetizing tiny, measurable spots within the carbon. Then they used a state-of-the-art x-ray microscope to get images of the magnetized portion.

This is truly the first research proving that transient magnetism on a small scale can be temporarily induced in carbon when it is brought near other magnetized elements

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Tags: neodymium magnets Smco magnets