Scientists generate electron coupler under controlled conditions of low temperature
September 27, 2023
Scientists generate electron couplers under controlled conditions at low temperatures. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside recently reported that they have discovered a new method for generating electron couplers at low temperatures. The study of electron couplet helps to reveal more properties of antimatter, and the mystery of why nature favors matter over antimatter when the universe was created. Relevant papers will be published in "Physical Review Letters" published on July 15. An electron coupler is a short-cycle, atomic-like structure composed of an electron and a positron. Since electrons and positrons will eventually annihilate to produce photons, its half-life is very short. This characteristic makes it valuable in studying the internal properties of substances. The annihilation time of electron coupling element in the medium can be used as a non-destructive measurement method, and it has been widely used in the fields of positron imaging, PET scanning and basic physical research. The new research conducted by the University of California, Riverside laboratory is relatively simple and easy to operate in obtaining electronic coupling elements. The researchers first irradiated the silicon samples with a laser, and then poured positrons on the silicon surface. Under the irradiation of the laser, they found that the electrons released by silicon and positrons formed electron couplers. David Cassidy, a scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, who is in charge of the research, said: "With this method, we are able to produce a large number of electron couplers in a controlled manner over a very wide temperature range. Other methods of producing electronic coupling elements from the surface of the material generally require the sample to be heated to a very high temperature first, and our method can be carried out at almost any temperature, including very low temperatures. "Professor of physics and astronomy at the school Alan Mill said that this work shows that irradiating the surface of the sample with a laser before the positrons arrive can help the positrons leave the surface to avoid annihilation. In this way, the electron coupling element will be naturally generated from the sample surface. The existence of this electron couple element is more than 200 times longer than the positron on the silicon surface, so it is easy to detect. The researchers explained that silicon was selected as the generating material because it is extremely widely used in electronics, reliable, cheap and very effective. Cassidy said that in fact, extremely low temperatures are more suitable for the production of electronic elements with silicon, at least for a short period of time. The researchers claim that their ultimate goal is to gain a deeper understanding of antimatter and its properties through the study of electron coupling elements. The research team hopes to cool the electron coupler in the near future so that it can achieve Bose-Einstein condensed state, so as to obtain more experimental uses.
