Phys.org February 1, 2024
Crystals spontaneously break the continuous translation symmetry of free space. An international team of researchers (Germany, Russia) demonstrated a robust continuous time crystal in an electron–nuclear spin system of a semiconductor tailored by tuning the material composition. Continuous, time-independent external driving of the sample produced periodic auto-oscillations with a coherence time exceeding hours. Varying the experimental parameters revealed wide ranges in which the time crystal remained stable. At the edges of these ranges, they found chaotic behaviour with a lifted periodicity corresponding to the melting of the crystal. According to the researchers time crystal state enabled fundamental studies of nonlinear interactions and has potential applications as a precise on-chip frequency standard… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Optical properties of the Si-doped In0.03Ga0.97As structure. Credit: Nature Physics, 24 January 2024Â