A New State Of Matter Called Half Ice, Half Fire Has Just Been Discovered
A new phase of matter, dubbed “half ice, half fire,” has just been discovered, and it could lead to advancements in fields like quantum computing.
The discovery is significant because it can switch sharply between phases at relatively reasonable temperatures, making it practical for real-world applications.
The new phase combines a number of “up” spins of electrons within an atom, which are highly ordered and called cold cycles, with “down” spins, which are highly disordered and called hot cycles.
These features are what gave it the nickname of “half ice, half fire.” It’s not actually a material that is physically made up of both fire and ice. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time such a phenomenon has been detected.
Back in 2016, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory—Weiguo Yin and Alexei Tsvelik, along with their intern Christopher Roth—observed its twin of half fire, half ice. It is basically an inverted configuration of the latest discovery.
The same team first observed the new half ice, half fire state when conducting research on a ferrimagnet, which is a type of magnetic material that has populations of atoms with opposing magnetic moments. Since the populations are unequal, some magnetization remains.
Sr3CulrO6 is the specific ferrimagnet in which half ice, half fire was observed. It is a compound that consists of copper, strontium, iridium, and oxygen. It is the same material that half fire, half ice was originally found in.
In half fire, half ice, hot spins took place on the copper sites and had smaller magnetic movements, while cold spins occurred on the iridium sites and had larger magnetic movements.
Although the findings are exciting, the researchers still aren’t sure how this new state can be utilized. There is still a lot of information missing about it.
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They are still working on fully understanding it. However, the team was able to identify a narrow range of temperatures in which the switch between phases happens.
Overall, the recent work has promising implications for physics, materials sciences, and future refrigeration technology.
It could help advance the ability to identify new states of matter with exotic properties, as well as manipulate the transition between states.
“Solving those problems could lead to great advances in technologies like quantum computing and spintronics,” said Weiguo Yin, a physicist from Brookhaven National Lab. “The door to new possibilities is now wide open,” he concluded.
For now, the discovery represents a major step forward in learning about the strange and wondrous ways that matter can behave. In the search for new and exotic states of matter, this one was another milestone.
The details of the study were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
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