Photonic metamaterial analogue of a continuous time crystal

Time crystals are an eagerly sought phase of matter with broken time-translation symmetry. Quantum time crystals with discretely broken time-translation symmetry have been demonstrated in trapped ions, atoms and spins whereas continuously broken time-translation symmetry has been observed in an atom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2023-07, Vol.19 (7), p.986-991
Main Authors: Liu, Tongjun, Ou, Jun-Yu, MacDonald, Kevin F., Zheludev, Nikolay I.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Time crystals are an eagerly sought phase of matter with broken time-translation symmetry. Quantum time crystals with discretely broken time-translation symmetry have been demonstrated in trapped ions, atoms and spins whereas continuously broken time-translation symmetry has been observed in an atomic condensate inside an optical cavity. Here we report that a classical metamaterial nanostructure, a two-dimensional array of plasmonic metamolecules supported on flexible nanowires, can be driven to a state possessing all of the key features of a continuous time crystal: continuous coherent illumination by light resonant with the metamolecules’ plasmonic mode triggers a spontaneous phase transition to a superradiant-like state of transmissivity oscillations, resulting from many-body interactions among the metamolecules, characterized by long-range order in space and time. The phenomenon is of interest to the study of dynamic classical many-body states in the strongly correlated regime and applications in all-optical modulation, frequency conversion and timing. So far, a continuous time crystal has only been implemented on a quantum system. Optically driven many-body interactions in a nanomechanical photonic metamaterial now allow the realization of a classical continuous time crystal.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/s41567-023-02023-5