Researchers have for the first time observed a time crystal on a microscale semiconductor chip oscillating at a rate of several billion times per second, unveiling exceptionally high non-linear dynamics in the GHz range.
The results of the experiment, published in Science, establish a firm connection between formerly uncorrelated areas of non-linear exciton-polariton dynamics and coherent optomechanics at GHz frequencies, say researchers from the Paul-Drude-Institute for Solid State Electronics (PDI) in Berlin, Germany, and the Argentina-based Centro Atómico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro (CAB-IB).
The research was carried out using a high-quality semiconductor-based sample that acts as a trap for coherent light-matter condensates.
Designed and fabricated at PDI, the sample was created by stacking one-atom-thick layers of semiconductor materials under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, eventually forming a micron-sized "box" with the ability to trap millions of quantum particles. It was then transferred to CAB-IB for testing.
When the CAB-IB team directed a time-independent (i.e. continuous) laser at the sample, they observed that the particles it contained began to oscillate at GHz frequencies—a billion times per second.
This is the first time sustained oscillations in this range have been observed in a condensate sample on a semiconductor device.
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