Although superconductivity in carbon-60 – the chief member of the fullerene family – has attracted a great deal of attention lately, the magnetic properties of the molecule have intrigued physicists since they were first reported in 1991. In the last nine years, several groups have confirmed that electron-doped carbon-60 is ferromagnetic. However, they have also noticed strange discrepancies in the molecule’s magnetic properties.
In the January issue of Physics World, Kazuyoshi Tanaka of the Department of Molecular Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan, describes how Bakhyt Narymbetov of the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki, Japan, and co-workers have succeeded in differentiating two distinct magnetic phases in a carbon-60 compound (B Narymbetov et al. 2000 Nature 407 883).