Physicists work to shrink microchips with first one-dimensional helium model system

Phys.org  July 6, 2022 As the spatial dimension is lowered, locally stabilizing interactions are reduced, leading to the emergence of strongly fluctuating phases of matter without classical analogues. A team of researchers in the US (University of Tennessee, Argonne National Laboratory, Caltech, University of Indiana) describes the experimental observation of a one-dimensional quantum liquid of 4He using nanoengineering by confining it within a porous material preplated with a noble gas to enhance dimensional reduction. The resulting excitations of the confined 4He are qualitatively different than bulk superfluid helium and can be analyzed in terms of a mobile impurity allowing for […]