You can turn non-magnetic materials into magnets simply by "shaking" them with quick pulses of electricity.
arXiv · March 18, 2026 · 2603.16782
The Takeaway
Normally, magnetism is an inherent property of certain metals like iron. This study shows that researchers can force magnetism to emerge in non-magnetic systems by using a timed electric potential, effectively creating a magnetic field out of rhythmic motion rather than magnetic material.
From the abstract
We investigate the response of the Rashba spin-orbit system to a time-periodic scalar potential, in order to determine whether an induced magnetization exists. We approach this by employing the Floquet-Green function method within the Keldysh formalism, computing the non-equilibrium steady state of the system. We find that, even in the absence of an external magnetic field, the system evolves into a state with an oscillating magnetization density that is remarkably rich in structure. We provide