The simulation shows a 2D electron gas transitioning from a disordered, liquid-like arrangement to an ordered triangular Wigner crystal lattice as electron density is lowered and Coulomb repulsion begins to dominate over kinetic energy.
Lower the density slider (increasing the r_s parameter) to watch electrons freeze into a triangular lattice, or raise it to melt the crystal back into a correlated liquid.
Slider for electron density (r_s parameter) controlling the liquid-to-crystal transition
Eugene Wigner predicted this electron crystallization in 1934, decades before clean enough experimental systems existed to observe it, and scanning tunneling microscopy only directly imaged individual electrons in a Wigner-crystal arrangement within the last several years using moire superlattice materials.
The simulation shows a 2D electron gas transitioning from a disordered, liquid-like arrangement to an ordered triangular Wigner crystal lattice as electron density is lowered and Coulomb repulsion begins to dominate over kinetic energy.
The simulation shows a 2D electron gas transitioning from a disordered, liquid-like arrangement to an ordered triangular Wigner crystal lattice as electron density is lowered and Coulomb repulsion begins to dominate over kinetic energy.
Lower the density slider (increasing the r_s parameter) to watch electrons freeze into a triangular lattice, or raise it to melt the crystal back into a correlated liquid.
Eugene Wigner predicted this electron crystallization in 1934, decades before clean enough experimental systems existed to observe it, and scanning tunneling microscopy only directly imaged individual electrons in a Wigner-crystal arrangement within the last several years using moire superlattice materials.