Physicists discover gold can be magnetic on the nanoscale

Three-dimensional (a) and planar 20-atom gold clusters (b), showing top and side views, with the gold atoms depicted as yellow spheres, adsorbed on an MgO 8-layer film (Mg atoms in green and O atoms in red), which itself is supported by an underlying silver substrate (not shown). The calculations were performed under the influence of an electric field of 1 volt per nanometer. The excess electronic charge distribution is superimposed on the atomic structure as a blue cloud. The planar structure (b) is the favorable one under these conditions, while without the electric field the 3-D cluster (a) is the more stable one. Credit: Uzi Landman/Georgia Tech