Electrons are mutually repulsed: they like to steer clear of one another.
But that experiment was stuck in the classical realm.
But it would only happen in very cold temperatures and in low-density conditions.
A never-before seen Wigner crystal, visualized with a scanning tunneling microscope.Image:Yen-Chen Tsui and team, Princeton University
In the new experiment, the team put electrons between two graphene sheets exhaustively purged of material imperfections.
Then, they chilled the samples and applied a magnetic field perpendicular to it.
The highest magnetic field strength was 13.95 Tesla, and the lowest temperature was 210 millikelvin.
The Wigner crystal lattice.Image:Yen-Chen Tsui and team, Princeton University
Putting the electrons in a magnetic field further confines their movement, boosting the chances that theyll crystallize.
The team was surprised that the Wigner crystal remained stable over a longer range than expected.
At higher densities, though, the crystalline phase gave way to anelectron liquid.
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