Wigner crystal

English

Etymology

After Hungarian-American physicist, Template:W, who predicted the crystalline state in 1934.

Noun

1. Template:Lb A solid, crystalline phase of ions or charged particles (originally, and especially electrons) in a uniform, inert neutralising background, such that said ions have insufficient momentum to overcome their mutual repulsion and so remain fixed in a lattice formation.

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   • Template:Quote-book
   • 2013, Yehuda B. Band, Yshai Avishai, Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Nanotechnology and Information Science, Elsevier (Academic Press), page 816,

     3D Wigner crystals have not been observed experimentally. In addition to the difficulties in achieving low density, a Wigner crystal, once created, is not stable against various perturbations.

   • 2015, Template:W, Laser Spectroscopy 2: Experimental Techniques, Springer, 5th Edition, page 531,

     If several ions are trapped in an ion trap and are cooled by optical sideband cooling, a "phase transition" may occur at the temperature $T_C$ where the ions arrange into a stable, spatially symmetric configuration like a crystal [1235—1238]. The distances between these ions in this Wigner crystal are about $10^3-10^4$ times larger than those in an ordinary ion crystal such as $\mathrm{N}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{l}$. Wigner crystals of electrons, where the electrons are located at certain regular positions in an external field, were first proposed by E. Wigner in 1934.

Translations

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