Néel

Néel is a French surname that is most widely associated with the field of magnetism in physics. The name is especially linked to the French physicist Louis Eugène Félix Néel, whose work laid the foundations for the modern understanding of magnetic ordering in solids.

Louis Néel (1904–2000) was a prominent French physicist who contributed to the theory of magnetism, including antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism. His research helped establish the study of magnetic solids as a discipline and introduced concepts that describe how magnetic moments arrange themselves in materials. In recognition of his discoveries concerning ordering phenomena in antiferromagnetic systems, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1970.

Several concepts in solid-state physics bear Néel’s name. The Néel temperature, named after him, is the temperature below which an antiferromagnet maintains its ordered state and above which it becomes paramagnetic. The Néel vector, or Néel order parameter, describes the staggered orientation of magnetic moments in an antiferromagnet, effectively capturing the difference between sublattice magnetizations. The term Néel state refers to the antiferromagnetically ordered ground state of a bipartite lattice.

The surname Néel is of French origin and is principally recognized in scientific literature through Louis Néel and his contributions to magnetism.