Insider Brief
- Researchers created a continuous space-time crystal in nematic liquid crystals using ambient light, showing ordered patterns that break both spatial and temporal symmetry.
- The crystals emerge from particle-like solitons, remain robust against perturbations, and can persist for hours while self-healing defects.
- Potential applications include optical devices, photonic modulators, telecommunications, and cryptographic anti-counterfeiting systems, with indirect implications for quantum communication.
- Image: The stripes in a time crystal as seen under a microscope. (Zhao & Smalyukh, 2025, Nature Materials)
Time crystals — strange states of matter that were once thought confined to the quantum world — have now been realized in liquid crystals driven by ordinary light, according to researchers. The result could broaden thinking about spatiotemporal order and may even open up indirect avenues toward quantum technologies in optics and communication.
Researchers Hanqing Zhao and Ivan I. Smalyukh, both of the University of Colorado and Hiroshima University, report in Nature Materials that they created a “continuous space-time crystal” using nematic liquid crystals, a common soft material that are best known for use in display screens. Unlike prior systems that required ultracold atoms or superconducting qubits, this one forms spontaneously when exposed to ambient blue light. The crystal breaks both spatial and temporal symmetry, producing ordered patterns in space and time that remain stable for hours.
Beyond Quantum Origins
The idea of a time crystal was first proposed just over a decade ago by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek. The earliest versions were thought to be impossible, but variations called discrete or Floquet time crystals have since been demonstrated in nuclear spins, trapped ions, cold atoms and superconducting qubits. These quantum systems periodically revisit the same state, breaking time-translation symmetry in a way that makes them distinct from ordinary oscillations.
Most of those demonstrations required carefully controlled quantum hardware. By contrast, the Colorado–Hiroshima team observed time crystallinity in a liquid crystal sample that could be studied with a standard optical microscope. According to the researchers, this shows that the basic physics of time symmetry breaking is not exclusive to quantum mechanics. Instead, it can emerge in classical matter under the right conditions.
For those in the quantum tech space, the significance may be not that liquid crystals will replace superconducting qubits or ion traps, but that the broader concept of time crystallinity may be a general phenomenon. This could strengthen theoretical models and suggests that ideas developed in one domain may find surprising expression in another.
Particle-Like Solitons as Building Blocks
The space-time crystals in the new study emerge from “particle-like topological solitons” in the liquid crystal material. The researchers liken the effect to twisting a ribbon at different points. Each twist, or soliton, is stable on its own but begins to interact with neighboring twists. Instead of remaining random, the twists fall into repeating sequences, forming ordered patterns that play out both in space and in time.
In simpler terms, computer simulations showed that the twists in the liquid crystal behave as if they were connected by tiny springs, or harmonic potentials. These spring-like connections keep the pattern in place, so even when heat jostles the molecules, the overall order holds together. The team writes that the crystals proved robust to perturbations: if a defect was introduced, the ordered pattern recovered within a few cycles.
That robustness may be interesting for academics studying quantum error correction. Quantum bits are notoriously fragile, and researchers spend much of their effort finding ways to stabilize them. Although the liquid crystal time crystals are classical, their ability to self-heal and persist under disturbance may offer lessons for designing resilient architectures.
Optical Applications
The practical implications are more immediate in optics. As polarized light passes through the space-time crystals, it accumulates phase shifts that vary with both spatial and temporal coordinates. The researchers suggest this could help create dynamic optical elements such as phase gratings and time-dependent lenses.
Those properties link the work to photonic technologies already central to quantum communication. Fiber networks and free-space links depend on stable encoding of information in light. Devices that can impose controlled, robust temporal modulation on optical signals might eventually enhance data encoding or act as testbeds for quantum-inspired protocols.
The researchers point to potential uses in telecommunications, optical signal processing and even anti-counterfeiting. Because the crystals produce unique spatiotemporal fingerprints, they could function as “time watermarks” or dynamic barcodes. For policymakers interested in secure communication, this dovetails with the push toward quantum-safe cryptography, even if the mechanism here is classical.
A Bridge Between Classical and Quantum
Quantum time crystals remain a hot topic because they probe fundamental questions about many-body physics and may one day inform device design. The demonstration of time crystallinity in liquid crystals provides a complementary platform that is far easier to probe and manipulate. Researchers said this could stimulate new theoretical approaches, since the same symmetry-breaking rules apply across both classical and quantum systems.
The work also shows how unexpected crossovers between fields — in this case, condensed matter physics and quantum information — can generate new opportunities. Time crystallinity is no longer a curiosity limited to ultracold quantum labs. It is a principle that may appear in soft matter, photonics, and beyond.
Limitations and Future Work
The researchers stress that these are classical systems, not quantum ones. The liquid crystal time crystals operate at relatively low frequencies, with periodicities on the order of seconds to milliseconds. Quantum communication systems typically require much higher frequencies and integration with nanoscale devices.
Scaling down the spatial periodicity to match the wavelengths of visible or telecom light, and increasing the temporal frequencies, would be essential before these crystals could play a direct role in quantum hardware. The team suggests that further engineering of liquid crystal parameters or hybrid material systems could push the platform toward those regimes.
Another limitation is that the current demonstrations are confined to one spatial dimension plus time. Extending the concept to two or three spatial dimensions could open richer physics and more functional device architectures. Researchers point out that higher-dimensional topological solitons may allow such structures to be realized.
Zhao and Smalyukh also hold affiliations with the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a joint effort of the University of Colorado and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Although the study focuses on the physics of time crystals, the connection to renewable energy comes through the broader field of photonics and could prompt future work. Controlling how light moves through materials is central to solar cells, smart coatings and optical communication networks that underpin modern energy systems. By showing how liquid crystals can spontaneously form stable, light-driven patterns in space and time, the researchers are advancing optical design principles that could eventually improve energy harvesting, signal transmission and other technologies supported by the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute.
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