Spatiotemporal observation of quantum crystallization of electrons

TL;DR

This study uses Raman microspectroscopy to observe quantum crystallization of electrons in real space and time, revealing universal nucleation features and exceptionally fast growth driven by quantum effects.

Contribution

First real-space, real-time imaging of electronic crystallization demonstrating quantum effects on crystallization kinetics.

Findings

Crystallization profiles are temperature-dependent, similar to classical systems.

Growth rate is many orders of magnitude faster due to quantum effects.

Quantum-to-classical transition occurs in electron crystallization.

Abstract

Liquids crystallize as they cool; however, when crystallization is avoided in some way, they supercool, maintaining their liquidity, and freezing into glass at low temperatures, as ubiquitously observed. These metastable states crystallize over time through the classical dynamics of nucleation and growth. However, it was recently found that Coulomb interacting electrons on charge-frustrated triangular lattices exhibit supercooled liquid and glass with quantum nature and they crystallize, raising fundamental issues : what features are universal to crystallization at large and specific to that of quantum systems? Here, we report our experimental challenges that address this issue through the spatiotemporal observation of electronic crystallization in an organic material. With Raman microspectroscopy, we are the first to successfully perform real-space and real-time imaging of electronic crystallization. The results directly capture strongly temperature-dependent crystallization profiles indicating that nucleation and growth proceed at distinctive temperature-dependent rates, which is common to conventional crystallization. Remarkably, however, the growth rate is many orders of magnitude larger than that in the conventional case, which is attributable to the quantum effect. The temperature characteristics of nucleation and growth are universal, whereas unusually fast growth kinetics features quantum crystallization where a quantum-to-classical catastrophe occurs in interacting electrons.