Nature Physics, Published online: 07 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s41567-025-02962-1
Electron hopping on geometrically frustrated lattices leads to unusual, correlated phenomena, but materials whose structures match such lattices are rare. Now, in Pd5AlI2, frustrated electron motion is shown to emerge from the atomic orbital configuration, rather than the lattice geometry — which means the search space for unusual electronic structures and correlated behaviour can be broadened to materials with simpler, more common structures.
