Scientists Discover a New State of Matter—'Half Ice, Half Fire'—and It Could Rewrite the Future

Matter is an inquisitive subject for scientists to investigate. Despite being so overwhelmingly surrounded by matter, there is a lot that is yet to be understood about it. Recently, researchers found a new facet of matter that stunned experts worldwide, stated Live Science. Findings regarding this development have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The study claims that a team of physicists has observed a new phase of matter, which they are calling "half ice, half fire." Researchers believe that this breakthrough will help them in garnering more advancements in quantum computing. In this new phase, several 'up' spins of electrons combine with 'down' spins of electrons in an atom. The upspins are organized and known as cold cycles. The 'down' spins, on the other hand, are very disorganized and referred to as hot cycles. These patterns led to researchers calling the phase "half ice, half fire."

"Half ice, half fire" is a very valuable find because it is very rare to come across. Another noteworthy aspect of this phase was that it can facilitate switching between two states under apt temperatures. A similar phase was noted by the team associated with the study at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2016. Back then, the team was examining a kind of magnetic material known as ferrimagnets. The atoms of ferrimagnets exhibit opposite magnetic moments. These opposing atoms are unequal in number, which facilitates the magnetization.

The ferrimagnet where the unique phase was observed has been determined to be Sr3CuIrO6. This compound is composed of oxygen, copper, iridium, and strontium. The material was exposed to an external magnetic field. The hot spins happened on the copper sites, while the cold spins took place on iridium sites. Researchers were ecstatic about the discovery but did not understand its function. "Despite our extensive research, we still didn't know how this state could be utilized," physicist Alexei Tsvelik, a co-author of the study, said. "We were missing pieces of the puzzle."

The new instance showcased that the 2016 "Half ice, Half fire" has a twin of sorts. In this twin, the hot and cold spins exchanged positions. The switching takes place at a specific temperature range. This application of switching will have a lot of use in sectors like refrigeration technology and quantum information storage, stated Popular Mechanics. "Next, we are going to explore the fire-ice phenomenon in systems with quantum spins and with additional lattice, charge, and orbital degrees of freedom," physicist Weiguo Yin, a co-author of the study, shared. "The door to new possibilities is now wide open."

Researchers believe this discovery will allow them to solve several central questions of physics and materials science, stated Live Science. It will also provide insights into identifying new states of matter with appealing properties. "Solving those problems could lead to great advances in technologies like quantum computing and spintronics," Yin said. The authors believe such discoveries will help other experts in understanding phase transitions in materials, which is still a difficult pursuit.