Hidden metastable mesoscopic states in quantum materials

Introduction

Non-equilibrium states of matter have become of great fundamental and practical interest in recent years because of their wide importance in diverse areas of physics. With the rapid development of new time-resolved techniques, the temporal dynamics of competing processes and interactions were recently elucidated in a wide variety of complex condensed matter systems.

Challenges in Current Research

However, the physics of metastable mesoscopically non-periodic quantum textures emerging from phase transitions has been largely experimentally inaccessible till now. Current state-of-the-art time-resolved methods using:

• X-rays
• Electron diffraction
• Photoemission
• THz and optical spectroscopy

all average over multiple transition outcomes. Moreover, they cannot resolve irregular non-periodic nanoscale structures. Thus, a large field of mesoscopic quantum physics of metastable quantum states remains largely unexplored.

Proposed Approach

Here we propose to develop a unique set of tools to investigate mesoscopic metastable irregular textures created under controlled non-equilibrium conditions in quantum materials, with a focus on topological transitions and quantum jamming phenomena.

Methodology

Temporally tempered excitation techniques combined with time-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy will be used to study:

1. Single transition outcomes
2. Multiple transition outcomes

This will be conducted with atomic spatial resolution on timescales from picoseconds to hours.

Theoretical Framework

Experiments supplemented by new theoretical approaches will address:

• The creation processes
• Relaxation dynamics
• Quantum decoherence of metastable mesoscopic structures
• Manipulation and control

Theoretical approaches for addressing resulting quantum states include fracton-derived models and quantum annealing on a quantum computer.

Significance of the Project

The project opens the path to detailed exploration of a new class of physical phenomena of wide fundamental interest in different areas of physics, while opening new avenues in non-equilibrium solid state quantum systems technology.