Half And Half

Scientists recently discovered a new state of matter that may help revolutionize quantum computing.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory identified a never-before-seen “half-ice, half-fire” phase of matter that could pave the way for smarter, faster information storage.

“Finding new states with exotic physical properties – and being able to understand and control the transitions between those states – are central problems in the fields of condensed matter physics and materials science,” Weiguo Yin, co-author of the new study, said in a statement. “Solving those problems could lead to great advances in technologies like quantum computing and spintronics.”

Yin and his colleague Alexei Tsvelik explained that the exotic phase refers not to literal temperature extremes, but to the behavior of electron spins – the tiny magnetic moments carried by electrons.

In this material state, highly ordered, “cold” spins coexist with disordered, “hot” spins. That strange pairing gives the material the ability to switch sharply between phases at finite temperatures, a property with promising applications in fields like spintronics and quantum computing.

Their research builds on a previous study by Yin and Tsvelik involving the magnetic compound Sr3CuIrO6, where the “half-fire, half-ice” state was first found.

In that phase, copper atoms held “hot” spins while iridium atoms carried the “cold” ones. The newly described twin flips the roles – iridium gets hot, copper cools off – showing a hidden symmetry and, more importantly, a path toward controlled, ultrasharp switching.

The researchers believe the sharp switching behavior – occurring over an ultranarrow temperature range – could form the basis of new quantum bits, or “qubits,” for data storage.

These findings could be useful in many areas, from improving refrigeration technology to storing information in quantum systems – where these phases might serve as bits of data, according to Popular Mechanics.

“Next, we are going to explore the fire-ice phenomenon in systems with quantum spins and with additional lattice, charge, and orbital degrees of freedom,” Yin added. “The door to new possibilities is now wide open.”