Print Time crystal, a new phase of matter proposed by Frank Wilczek, the Nobel laureate of Physics in 2004, can break original time-translation symmetry and create new time-oscillation spontaneously.
Recently, a joint research team of the National Time Service Center (NTSC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University observed time crystal in a spin maser system.
The results were recently published in Communications Physics (Nature portfolio journal) on May 5, 2025 titled as Observation of time crystal in a spin maser system.
Researchers found that in a Rb-Xe hybrid atomic spin maser system, when the spin-feedback magnetic field interaction strength exceeds the spin-DC magnetic field interaction, a new spin oscillation signal emerges. The signal oscillates with a frequency totally different from that of the original spin Larmor precession, and it has random phases and shows high robustness over repeated experiments, fitting the definition of time crystals.
"Our research provides an alternative scheme to the existing time crystals", said Prof. LIU Guobin, leader of atomic spin gyroscope research group from NTSC. The time crystal in spin maser could be potentially used for both fundamental studies and practical applications based on precision measurement physics.
Fig. 1 Schematic drawing of the spin maser experimental setup.(Imaged by NTSC)
Fig. 2 Dependency of the time crystal on the amplitude and phase of the feedback magnetic field.(Imaged by NTSC)