Imagine a clock that doesn't have electricity, but its hands and gears spin on their own for all eternity. In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used liquid crystals, the same materials that are in your phone display, to create such a clock—or, at least, as close as humans can get to that idea. The team's advancement is a new example of a "time crystal." That's the name for a curious phase of matter in which the pieces, such as atoms or other particles, exist in constant motion
The researchers aren't the first to make a time crystal, but their creation is the first that humans can actually see, which could open a host of technological applications.
"They can be observed directly under a microscope and even, under special conditions, by the naked eye," said Hanqing Zhao, lead author of the study and a graduate student in the Department of Physics at CU Boulder.
He and Ivan Smalyukh, professor of physics and fellow with the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), published their findings Sept. 4 in the journal Nature Materials.
In the study, the researchers designed glass cells filled with liquid crystals—in this case, rod-shaped molecules that behave a little like a solid and a little like a liquid. Under special circumstances, if you shine a light on them, the liquid crystals will begin to swirl and move, following patterns that repeat over time.
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