Quantum crystal of frozen electrons—the Wigner crystal—is visualized for the first time

Scientists at Princeton University have, for the first time, successfully visualized the elusive Wigner crystal – a strange form of matter made only of electrons that assemble into a crystal-like formation of their own (without the need to coalesce around atoms). The scientists cooled the sample down to extremely low temperatures—just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero—and applied a magnetic field perpendicular to the sample, which created a two-dimensional electron gas system between two thin layers of graphene – a two-dimensional material made of carbon atoms. “Our work provides the first direct images of this crystal,” said Yen-Chen Tsui, one of the scientists involved in this study. “We proved the crystal is really there and we can see it.”