Experience the pioneering first video of space-time crystallization

A German-Polish collaboration has succeeded in making the first video recording of a space-time crystal. The repeating material structure was micrometer-sized and at room temperature, representing an important step forward in finding applications for these interesting objects.

A crystal is, by definition, a material whose components are arranged in a lattice, a highly ordered microscopic structure. The crystal of time is the same, but the arrangement is not seen in space but in time. The structure changes, oscillates and returns to a certain configuration periodically.

Put the two together and you get a space-time crystal. The crystal in this study was created using a strip of permalloy (iron-nickel alloy) and put them on a small antenna through which they send a radio frequency current.

This process produced specific excited states in the electrons of this material. These behave like a particle (even though they are not) so they are referred to as quasiparticles Crazy. The magons in this material can be seen to periodically go in and out of their arrangement in both space and time: a perfect space-time crystal.

“We have been able to show that these space-time crystals are much more powerful and widespread than initially thought,” said co-lead author Pawel Groszicki, a scientist at the Faculty of Physics at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. statement. “Our crystal condenses at room temperature and molecules can interact with it – unlike an isolated system. Moreover, it has reached a size that can be used to do something with this magnon space-time crystal. This could lead to many potential applications.”

What was very exciting was that their space-time crystal was able to interact with other magnetrons that the researchers had thrown into the system. Time crystals have recently been made to interact but this is the first time we have looked at the interaction of quasiparticles with a space-time crystal.

“We took the regularly repeating pattern of madons in space and time, sent out more madons, and they eventually scattered. Thus, we were able to show that a time crystal could interact with other quasiparticles. No one had yet been able to show that,” explained other co-author Nick. Trager, a doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, “live in an experiment, let alone a video.”

Crystals are useful in a wide range of technologies, so there is great interest in how time crystal structures can be used in communications or imaging technologies.

The study is published in Physical review letters.

A previous version of this article was published in February 2021.