MIT physicists and colleagues have discovered the “secret sauce” behind some of the exotic properties of a new quantum material that has transfixed physicists due to those properties, which include superconductivity.

Figure 1: “secret sauce” behind Kagome electrons’

Figure 1 shows that the unusual properties of the material, known as a kagome metal, this is the first time that the phenomenon behind those properties has been observed in the laboratory.

The kagome metal at the heart of the current work is a new quantum material, or one that manifests the exotic properties of quantum mechanics at a macroscopic scale.

The specific kagome material explored in the current work is made of only three elements (caesium, vanadium, and antimony) and has the chemical formula CsV3Sb5. [1]

Kagome metals have long mystified scientists for their ability to exhibit collective behaviour when cooled below room temperature. One of the resulting properties is superconductivity, which allows a material to conduct electricity extremely efficiently.

In a regular metal, electrons behave much like people dancing individually in a room. In a kagome superconductor, when the material is cooled to 3 Kelvin (approximately minus 454 degrees Fahrenheit) the electrons begin to move in pairs, like couples at a dance.

At 100 Kelvin, the kagome material exhibits yet another strange kind of behaviour known as charge density waves. In this case, the electrons arrange themselves in the shape of ripples.

A research team led by MIT assistant professor of physics Riccardo Comin discovered that the “secret sauce” behind kagome electrons’ unusual synchronicity is due to another behaviour known as an electronic singularity, or the Van Hove singularity, which involves the relationship between the electrons’ energy and velocity. [2]

Riccardo Comin said, “Relating the energy to the velocity of electrons in a solid is challenging and required special instruments at two international synchrotron research facilities: Beamline 4A1 of the Pohang Light Source, and Beamline 7.0.2 (MAESTRO) of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS). A synchrotron is a particle accelerator that generates extremely bright light beams ranging in photon energies from the infrared through X-rays.”

Using a technique called, Angle-resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy or ARPES, scientists were able to identify and measure the velocities of the electrons central to the exciting properties of the material. [3]

References:

1. https://news.mit.edu/2022/physicists-discover-secret-sauce-behind-exotic-properties-new-quantum-material-0121
2. https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-secret-sauce-behind-exotic-properties-of-unusual-new-quantum-material/
3. https://www.techexplorist.com/scientists-discovered-secret-sauce-behind-exotic-properties-new-quantum-material/45429/

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), Scientist Revealed New Secret Sause Behind Quantum Materials, Anatechmaz, pp.34