First theorized more than eight decades ago, the elusive massless particles known as Weyl fermions have finally been discovered by a team of Princeton University scientists, and the discovery could lead to the development of faster, more efficient electronics.
As the researchers explain in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science, Weyl fermions have a unique ability to behave as both matter and antimatter inside a crystal. If the properties of these particles are applied to technological devices, they could allow for the free and highly efficient flow of electricity, thus leading to more powerful computers.
Originally proposed by mathematician and physicist Hermann Weyl in 1929, Weyl fermions have been highly sought-after by scientists because they have been regarded as potential building block of other subatomic particles, and are even more basic than electrons when the negatively charged particles are moving inside of a crystal.
The basic nature of Weyl fermions mean that they could provide a stable, more efficient way to transport particles than electrons in electronic devices. Unlike electrons, Weyl fermions have no mass and are highly mobile.
Unique properties could lead to quantum computing technology
Hasan, a professor of physics at Princeton, said that the Weyl fermion’s physics are “strange” and that it could lead to innovations “that we’re just not capable of imagining now.” The fermion was discovered synthetic metallic crystal known as tantalum arsenide, and unlike other recently discovered particles, the authors said that it could be reproduced and potentially applied.
Two characteristics of the Weyl fermion could be applied to future electronic devices, including the development of quantum computers. They behave like a composite of monopole- and antimonopole-like particles when inside a crystal, giving them opposing magnetic charges that can still move independently of one another, and they can be used to create electrons that do not have any mass, which move quickly and without any being lost to collisions.
This phenomenon is known as backscattering, and it generates heat and hinders efficiency. Weyl electrons, however, can simply move through and around obstructions, as if they had “their own GPS” and were able to “steer themselves without scattering,” noted Hasan. “They will move and move only in one direction… and never come to an end because they just tunnel through. These are very fast electrons that behave like unidirectional light beams and can be used for new types of quantum computing.”
Building upon previous research, the authors studied and simulated dozens of tantalum arsenide crystals before focusing their efforts on an asymmetrical crystal, which had a differently shaped top and bottom. They were loaded into a scanning tunneling spectromicroscope that was cooled to near absolute zero and suspended from the ceiling to prevent even atom-sized vibrations. The device revealed that the crystal matched theoretical specifications for a Weyl fermion host.
The crystals were then taken to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, where they were examined with high-energy accelerator-based photon beams. The shape, direction, and size of the beams as they were fired through the crystal revealed the presence of the elusive Weyl fermion.
(Image credit: Dr. Ling Lu)
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