How This New State of Matter Is Made With Lasers, Crystals, and “Frustration"

Scientists were able to use lasers to create a "supercrystal." The key to making this happen? Frustration. » Subscribe to Seeker!http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker » Watch more Elements! http://bit.ly/ElementsPlaylist A team of scientists managed to use a laser pulse to create a crystal with giant repeating structures that are much larger than those in ordinary crystals, what’s known as a “supercrystal.” But lasers have actually been used to transform materials into more ordered states of matter for decades, what made this instance particularly special was that this supercrystal could stay in that state for at least a year (potentially even longer had the study lasted longer). This is one of the first examples of a material that achieved long-term stability after being rearranged using such a short laser pulse, and the key? A lot of frustration. When blasted by photons from a laser, the electrons in matter get excited, before minimizing their energy again and quickly returning to their normal state. In that heightened phase, or on the way back down, the material might have properties the scientists are looking for, but scientists have to act fast to spot them because the properties might not stick around for long. Scientists started with a crystal substrate they would use to grow single atomic layers of their material made of lead titanate and strontium titanate. The scientists were looking for hidden states of matter by taking it out of its comfortable state, also known as its ground state. With the added energy from a sub-picosecond pulse of light the material arranged itself into repeating unit cells with a volume a million times greater than the lead titanate or strontium titanate it was based on. It wasn’t just a crystal anymore. It was a supercrystal. Learn more about the supercrystal and what it could mean for future research and the understanding of materials on this episode of Elements. #Lasers #Supercrystal #StateOfMatter #Seeker #Elements #Sc