Dropleton 

Serapia Kim April 2014

 

Physics is full of dualities, one of the more common one being the electron’s “wave particle duality”. Adding on to this theme of quantum physics, scientists recently discovered a new quasiparticle named dropleton (quantum droplet), which behaves like a particle AND a liquid. A dropleton is a quasiparticle, meaning that it is not a elementary particle.

Rather, it is comprised of electrons (negative charge) and holes (the “empty” space devoid of electrons, thus having a positive charge) held together by a liquid-like bond. These so called holes give quasiparticles like dropletons an essential quality for everyday application. Namely, the holes in structures such as crystal lattices give rise to semiconductive properties such as those found in LED lights and Blu-ray players.

 

Furthermore, the practical usage of dropletons gives hope to a huge advancement in the field of quantum communication. Such technology has the potential to radically change the speed of information transfer as well as the magnitude of information storage. Although only recently discovered, the dropleton has already furthered our knowledge of quantum physics and substantially bridged the gap between micro properties of particles and macro properties of larger matters.