Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have constructed the first visible, human-scale version of a temporal crystal, a unique phase of matter. The achievement, detailed in the journal Nature Materials, realizes a concept first theorized in 2012 by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek. Whereas the structure of traditional crystals repeats periodically in space, the structure of a temporal crystal repeats periodically in time, with its particles moving in a stable, cyclic pattern.
The breakthrough is anticipated to have significant applications in fields including anti-counterfeiting security through ‘temporal tags’ on currency or documents, telecommunications, and advanced digital data storage. To create the crystal, researchers used a solution of liquid crystals—similar to those in television screens—sandwiched between two glass slides coated with dye molecules. When the system was exposed to a specific type of light, the dye molecules changed orientation and compressed the liquid crystals.
This process spontaneously generated thousands of new folds that began to interact with one another in a complex manner, ultimately forming patterns of movement that repeat in time with stable, spontaneous periodicity. “They can be observed directly under a microscope and even, under special conditions, with the naked eye,” stated University of Colorado Boulder physicist Hanqing Zhao.
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