Time crystals could soon escape the laboratory. These quantum systems made of time and light are potential fugitives into our reality.
By shining twin laser beams piped into a tiny disk-shaped crystal cavity this new class of matter was created unexpectedly.
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Detected by emitted luminosity, they spin and oscillate to the same height repeating to the same frequency— like ticking clocks with a predictable periodicity, but patterned across time, invisible to sight.
These structures from quantum impracticality, inherent crystalline metronomes might migrate into our future time-keeping technology.
Author’s Note: A cento, from the Latin for “patchwork,” is a collage poem composed of lines from other sources. This poem borrows phrases from a Scientific American article entitled “Time Crystals Made of Light Could Soon Escape the Lab,” by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan.
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