A crystal is a solid whose atoms or molecules are regularly arranged in a specific structure.
2012 Nobel laureate in physicsFrank Wilczek discovered the symmetry of matter in time. He is considered the discoverer of these so-called time crystals, although as a theorist he predicted them only hypothetically. Since then, several scientists have searched for material in which this phenomenon is observed. The fact that spacetime crystals do exist was first confirmed in 2017. However, the structures were only a few nanometers in size, and they formed only at very low temperatures below –250 ° C. The fact that scientists have now succeeded in displaying relatively large space-time crystals a few micrometers in size on video at room temperature is considered groundbreaking. But also because they were able to show that their time-space crystal, made up of magnons, can interact with other magnons that collide with it.
“We took a regularly repeating structuremagnons in space and time, sent more magnons, and they eventually dispersed. Thus, we were able to show that the time crystal can interact with other quasiparticles. No one has yet been able to show this directly in an experiment, let alone on video.”
Nick Traeger, doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
In their experiment, scientists placed a stripmagnetic material to a microscopic antenna through which they passed RF current. This microwave field produced an oscillating magnetic field, the energy source that stimulated the magnons in the strip - a spin wave quasiparticle. Magnetic waves migrated to the left and right stripes, spontaneously condensing into a repeating pattern in space and time. Unlike trivial standing waves, this pattern formed even before two converging waves could meet and intersect. A pattern that regularly disappears and reappears on its own must be a quantum effect.
The uniqueness of the opening is also in usean X-ray camera that not only allows you to see wavefronts with very high resolution, which is 20 times better than the best light microscope. But it can even do this at up to 40 billion frames per second, and with extremely high sensitivity to magnetic phenomena.
“We were able to show that such crystalsspacetimes are much more reliable and widespread than expected. Our crystal condenses at room temperature, and particles can interact with it, unlike an isolated system. Moreover, it had reached a size that could be used to do something with this magnon spacetime crystal. This could lead to many potential applications."
Paweł Gruszecki, scientist at the Faculty of Physics at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Classic crystals have a very wideapplication area. Now, if crystals can interact not only in space but also in time, scientists can add another dimension to possible applications. The potential for communications technology, radar and imaging technology is enormous.
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