MIT physicists have identified new details about how two different forms of electron organization develop inside the same quantum material, according to ScienceDaily. The work, published in Nature Physics, could help researchers better understand materials that show superconductivity, magnetism and other electronic phases.
The team studied erbium tritelluride, a rare-earth material with unusual electronic behavior. When cooled, its electrons can form a charge density wave, and at even lower temperatures a second wave appears at right angles to the first, creating a checkerboard-like pattern.
According to the researchers, the first charge density wave formed gradually across the material, while the second began in separate regions and spread outward. That contrast gave the team a way to compare two phase transitions in the same sample.
Lead author Yifan Su said charge density waves offer a simpler setting for understanding collective electron behavior, while co-author Alfred Zong said the experiment provides a useful way to study multiple coexisting phases. MIT professor Nuh Gedik said the approach could help uncover the physics behind phase transitions in quantum materials.
The study involved MIT researchers and collaborators from other institutions, including Stanford, which helped produce the atomically thin samples used in the experiments.
