Speaker
Description
The self-assembly of matter in the aftermath of a phase transition results in emergent states that are the origin of everything around us. Here we investigate the dynamics of emergent mesoscopic topologically non-trivial domain states formed after an polaronic Wigner crystal is quenched by an external perturbation using a fast STM. In particular, we study the detailed single-electron (polaron) dynamics in real space and in real time at a domain wall Y junction. The observed state is stabilised by global topological constraints and is exceptionally robust against local perturbations. The observed two-level system (TLS) behaviour of the emergent quasiparticle state is suggested to be driven by a hybridized Higgs-Goldstone collective mode that becomes soft at the Y junction. The observations points to a new class of topologically protected local vertex excitations that may be created and manipulated by STM tip.
We speculate that such excitations can be quite common in complex adaptive matter that forms under non-equilibrium conditions. A particular important technologically important example is AlOx, where the same symmetries are broken in the quasi-amorphous junction layer of transmon qubits that can lead to the generation of TLS noise recently observed on a very similar timescale.
| email address | dragan.mihailovic@ijs.si |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Jozef Stefan Institute |
