A team of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, working with a group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has developed a non-invasive way to image Wigner crystals directly. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their approach and explain how it could be used to advance research regarding Wigner crystal states. Carmen Rubio-Verdú with Columbia University has published a News & Views piece outlining the nature of Wigner crystals and describing the work by the team in the same journal issue.
Wigner crystals have a crystal lattice structure that forms when electrons are sparsely spaced in certain 2D materials. They have been observed in materials such as 2D semiconductors and liquid helium, but they are notoriously difficult to observe or image because they are so fragile. In this new effort, the researchers have developed a way to view Wigner crystals without disturbing them, which allows for more precise imaging.
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