Quantum dance: Discovery led by Princeton researchers could revolutionize computing

An international team of scientists, led by a Princeton University group, has observed an exciting and strange behavior in electrons' spin within a new material that could be harnessed to transform computing and electronics. "We believe this discovery is not only an advancement in the fundamental physics of quantum systems but also could lead to significant advances in electronics, computing and information science," said Zahid Hasan , an assistant professor of physics at Princeton, who led the international collaboration that included scientists from the United States, Switzerland and Germany. Theorists have long predicted that atoms placed in certain configurations would trigger electrons to behave in odd "quantum" ways. The Princeton-led team has been searching for a material that would produce these conditions. In the Feb. 13 issue of Science, the team has reported it witnessed the exotic behavior in a carefully constructed crystal made of an antimony alloy laced with bismuth. Surveying the structure on an atomic level with new techniques, the scientists have recorded swarms of electrons spinning in a synchronized quantum dance.