It is not every day that a new state of matter is discovered in quantum physics, the scientific field devoted to describing the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles in order to understand their properties.
This is exactly what an international team of researchers that includes the University of Montreal physics professor and researcher, and his students, do.
In a recent article published in the scientific journal, the researchers document a quantum spin liquid ground state in a magnetic material.
A liquid locked inside a solid.
Spin is an internal property of electrons. It is spin that makes a magnet.
Spin results in a disorganized structure similar to that of a molecule in a liquid.
As the temperature rises, a material becomes more disorganized. When water turns into steam, this is the case. Even when cooled to as low as absolute zero, spin liquids remain disorganized.
As the material is cooled, the direction of spin continues to change, as it does in a conventional magnet, in which all the spins are aligned.
Frustrating electrons is the art of it.
Imagine an electron as a tiny compass. The ferromagnetic phase is what keeps photos and notes pinned to your fridge, when the electron spins are all oriented in the same direction.
In quantum spin liquids, the electrons are positioned in a triangular lattice and are characterized by intense turbulence. The result is an entangled wave function.
When a third electron is added, the electron spins cannot align because the two neighboring electrons must always have opposing spins.
How did they add a third electron?
Creating a trois.
The Ce 2 Zr 2 O 7 was created in the lab. We can now add the master of the art of frustrating magnets to his already long list of accomplishments.
The existence of Ce 2 Zr 2 O 7 was known. We used samples melted in an optical furnace to create a triangular arrangement of atoms.
It was this triangle that allowed the team at UdeM to create magnetic frustration in Ce 2 Zr 2 O 7. They measured the compound's magnetic diffusion with the help of researchers at Colorado State universities and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
A clear sign of the absence of classical magnetic order was shown by the overlap of particle function. The material we created behaves like a spin liquid at low temperatures.
From dream to reality.
The team concluded that they were witnessing a never-before-seen quantum state after corroborating their observations with computer simulations.
The discovery of a new quantum state of matter is a dream come true for every physicist. This discovery could lead to new approaches to designing quantum computers.
Magnets are frustrated.
The electrons in a material all spin in the same direction. The alignment of spins is what gives the ferromagnet its magnetic properties. electrons can spin in opposite directions There is no magnetization in this case. Magnets are frustrated because the neighboring electrons try to orient their spins in opposite directions, and when they find themselves in a triangular lattice, they can no longer settle on a common, stable arrangement. A frustrated magnet was the result.
More information: E. M. Smith et al, Case for a U(1)π Quantum Spin Liquid Ground State in the Dipole-Octupole Pyrochlore Ce2Zr2O7, Physical Review X (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021015 Journal information: Physical Review X Citation: Unusual quantum state of matter observed for the first time (2022, May 11) retrieved 11 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-unusual-quantum-state.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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