An international team of scientists has achieved a remarkable breakthrough in the study of quantum materials thanks to an experiment conducted in Florida. Using the world’s most powerful magnet, they discovered strange behavior in a material that could have revolutionary applications for future technologies, from batteries to medical devices.

The experiment was conducted at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida, known for having a magnet capable of generating a magnetic field 900,000 times stronger than Earth’s. This field is so powerful that it can make small objects levitate, such as water droplets. In this unique environment, the researchers worked with a material called ZrSiS, cooled to extreme temperatures near absolute zero—the lowest possible temperature in the universe.

The goal was to investigate how this material responded to infrared light under the influence of such an intense magnetic field. What they found left scientists baffled. Although the material displayed some expected characteristics, it also exhibited completely new and perplexing phenomena, as if it were breaking the known rules of physics.

The scientists compared the behavior of the particles within the material to a train traveling on a network of tracks. In some directions, this train can move extremely fast, as if it had no weight. But when changing direction, it suddenly encounters resistance and gains mass. This means that the particles within the material switch between being “light” or “heavy” depending on the direction they move.

Paul Dirac
Portrait of Paul Dirac, by Clara Ewald (1939). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

This discovery relates to something called Dirac semi-fermions, theoretical particles that until now had only been modeled mathematically. However, in this experiment, the researchers were able to observe them directly for the first time in a real material.

The material in question, ZrSiS, is similar to graphite, the same material found in pencils. Like graphite, it can be separated into extremely thin layers, even as thin as a single atom. If scientists can perfect this technique with ZrSiS, they could control the properties of quantum particles with the same precision as graphene, a key material in many emerging technologies.

The potential of this material is enormous. The Dirac semi-fermions it contains could be harnessed to create faster and more efficient electronic devices, ultra-thin sensors, or even improve energy storage technologies like batteries. However, the most exciting aspect is that the experiment’s results raise more questions than answers. According to the researchers, much remains to be understood about how and why this material behaves so peculiarly.

This discovery was made possible through the collaboration of scientists from prestigious universities such as Penn State, Columbia, and Princeton, as well as institutions in Europe. The project was funded by entities such as the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

SOURCES

Penn State

Yimming Shao, Seongphill Moon, et al., Semi-Dirac Fermions in a Topological Metal. Phys. Rev. X 14, 041057. doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.041057

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