Weyl fermions could give rise to faster and more efficient electronics because of their unusual ability to behave as matter and antimatter inside a crystal. They could allow for a nearly free and efficient flow of electricity in electronics, and thus greater power, especially for computers.
Proposed by mathematician/ physicist Hermann Weyl in 1929, Weyl fermions have been long sought by scientists because they have been regarded as possible building blocks of other subatomic particles, and are even more basic than electrons (when electrons are moving inside a crystal). Their basic nature means that Weyl fermions could provide a much more stable and efficient transport of particles than electrons, which are the principle particle behind modern electronics. Unlike electrons, Weyl fermions are massless and possess a high degree of mobility; the particle’s spin is both in the same direction as its motion – which is known as being right-handed – and in the opposite direction in which it moves, or left-handed.
“The physics of the Weyl fermion are so strange, there could be many things that arise from this particle that we’re just not capable of imagining now” Prof Hasan said. Typically, particles like Higgs boson are detected in the fleeting aftermath of particle collisions. The Weyl fermion, however, was discovered inside a synthetic metallic crystal called tantalum arsenide that the Princeton researchers designed in collaboration with Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter in Beijing and at National Taiwan University.
They behave like a composite of monopole- and antimonopole-like particles when inside a crystal ie Weyl particles that have opposite magnetic-like charges can nonetheless move independently of one another with a high degree of mobility. Weyl fermions can be used to create massless electrons that move very quickly with no backscattering, wherein electrons are lost when they collide with an obstruction (usu. generates heat). Weyl electrons simply move through and around roadblocks.
To find this fermion, the Princeton team took the crystals passing the spectromicroscope test to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California to be tested with high-energy accelerator-based photon beams. Once fired through the crystal, the beams’ shape, size and direction indicated the presence of the long-elusive Weyl fermion.
~It is worth noting that Weyl materials are direct 3D electronic analogs of graphene, which is being seriously studied for potential applications.” http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S43/64/59M11/index.xml?section=topstories
IMAGE: A detector image (top) signals the existence of Weyl fermions. The plus and minus signs note whether the particle’s spin is in the same direction as its motion — which is known as being right-handed — or in the opposite direction in which it moves, or left-handed. This dual ability allows Weyl fermions to have high mobility. A schematic (bottom) shows how Weyl fermions also can behave like monopole and antimonopole particles when inside a crystal, meaning that they have opposite magnetic-like charges can nonetheless move independently of one another, which also allows for a high degree of mobility.
Credit: Image by Su-Yang Xu and M. Zahid Hasan, Princeton Department of Physics
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