The discovery is particularly important in the field of quantum computing because it proves that there are tuneable quibits that allow your spins to be controlled.
The physicists identified a New exotic state of matter in a previously known phase of a magnetic compound. Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US, led by Weigo Yin, Christopher Roth and Alexei Tsvelik, discovered a phase “half-ice”In SR3Cuiro6 material, a compound consisting of strontium, copper, iridium and oxygen.
This discovery, reports in a Physical Review Letters, follows the identification in 2016 of a “half-fold, half-speed” phase in the same material. In the previous discovery, electrons spins in two different structures have contrasting behaviors – one disorderly as trembling flames and the other frozen in place. The new phase reveals a inversion of this configuration.
At the center of this discovery is the concept of frustration – a term of condensed matter physics that describes Complex interactions between neighboring particles. A slight change in the system can be reverberated in the material, causing a phase change. In the early phase “half-fragus, half-speed”, copper atoms had disordered spins, while iridium atoms had fixed and strongly magnetic spins. Previously, it seemed mathematically impossible to induce a phase change in this configuration.
However, the team found that, at a specific temperature, the material suffers a Full phase reversalmoving to the “half-speed, half-fire” state. Here, copper atoms become ordained while iridium atoms fall into disorder, explains the.
Magnetic materials exist in various forms, and ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, have aligned spins, while ferrimagnetic materials – such as SR3Cuiro6 – have multiple spin states.
The ability to switch between the two exotic phases is particularly important for quantum computing. Quantum bits depend on electrons spins to represent binary states, and tuned quibits – where spins can be controlled – are highly desirable.
Earlier, the physicists were not sure how the “half-frag, half-ice” phase could be applied due to Limitations of the Ising Unidimensional Modela mathematical structure for ferromagnetism. The last discovery provides the missing pieces in Puzzle.
“Next, we will explore the Fire Ice Phenomenon in Quantum Spins Systems and Additional Network, Cargo and Orbital degrees of freedom,” said Yin. “The door for new possibilities is now open.”