Physicists at Rice University and Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) have observed quantum entanglement among “billions of billions” of flowing electrons in a quantum critical material, a strange metal compound of ytterbium, rhodium and silicon.
TU Wien researchers developed a highly complex materials synthesis technique to produce ultrapure films containing one part ytterbium for every two parts rhodium and silicon (YbRh2Si2). At absolute zero temperature, the material undergoes a transition from one quantum phase that forms a magnetic order to another that does not.
Quantum criticality may lead to a platform for both quantum information and high-temperature superconductivity. The paper is published in Science. (Phys.org)