Time Crystals – A Revolution in Quantum Technology
Time Crystals – How a New State of Matter Opens the Door to Quantum Technology
What Are Time Crystals and What Makes Them Different?
How Are Time Crystals Created and Studied?
Applications and Potential Directions of Development
Why Time Crystals Are Worth Your Attention?
Time Crystals - How a New State of Matter Opens the Door to Quantum Technology
Time crystals are one of the most surprising and expertly interesting states of matter in quantum physics. The name sounds abstract, but it’s not just a theoretical curiosity – scientists from universities and laboratories around the world are already experimenting with this phenomenon and envisioning real-world applications that could influence the future of quantum computers, sensors, and precision measurement devices.
What are time crystals and what makes them special
Traditionally, crystals are structures ordered in space, like salt, diamond, or quartz. Time crystals, on the other hand, repeat in time, not in space—their state oscillates periodically, even when the system is in its so-called ground state of energy, the lowest possible quantum state. This means that instead of “resting” like a typical material, a time crystal maintains its dynamics without further external energy input. Their existence is associated with a violation of what is known as time translation symmetry, which in physics means that the laws of physics remain the same regardless of the moment in time. In these structures, this temporal order emerges spontaneously and is observable in real-world experiments.
The first scientific laboratory confirmed the existence of time crystals in 2016. At that time, experiments with cooled ions and diamonds showed that quantum systems can exhibit stable oscillations in time without traditional energy. Since then, physicists have been developing concepts and testing various implementations of these structures in various systems.
How Time Crystals Are Created and Studied
One of the latest breakthroughs is an experiment by a team from Aalto University, where a time crystal was coupled to an external mechanical system—the first time something similar has been achieved in practice. The researchers used radio waves to excite magnons—quantum quasiparticles associated with spin waves—in superfluid helium-3 cooled to near absolute zero. After turning off the pump, the magnon system began to oscillate periodically for an incredibly long time (on the order of 10^8 cycles, or several minutes) before gradually decaying. During this decay, the time crystal naturally coupled with the mechanical oscillator, demonstrating that its properties can be controlled by its environment—and thus transcend the confines of an isolated laboratory system.
Other teams around the world have experimented with so-called space-time crystals, which not only repeat in time but also engage their spatial structure in synchronized motion. An example is an experiment in which magnons in a magnetic film formed a micrometric periodic pattern in two dimensions – space and time – which was recorded by X-ray microscopy.
Applications and potential development directions
Although time crystals have not yet been commercially developed, their unique properties are already attracting the attention of scientists and technological engineers. Here are the key areas where they could play a key role:
Quantum Memory and Computing
Time crystals are significantly more resistant to interference than typical quantum systems, allowing them to become stable carriers of quantum information. Studies have shown that time crystals oscillated for several minutes without a sudden loss of coherence – which, in the context of quantum memory, means significantly longer information storage than current solutions.
Precise Measurements and Sensors
Thanks to the periodic oscillations of quantum states, time crystals can be used as frequency references or standards for extremely precise measurements. This could find applications in ultra-precise quantum clocks, gravitational wave detectors, or sensors for extremely delicate field changes or motion.
Optomechanics and Hybrid Systems
Experiments combining time crystals with mechanical systems indicate that they can be a component of hybrid quantum systems—where light, mechanics, and quantum dynamics are combined in a single device. Such combinations could find future applications in quantum telecommunications or signal processing at levels that are still experimental today.
Why Time Crystals Are Worth Considering
Time crystals not only shed new light on the physics of matter and symmetry—they also demonstrate that the boundaries of what we thought were impossible continue to push. Although they are not used as “perpetual motion machines” in the classical sense, their near-endless oscillations in the ground state pose new challenges and opportunities for scientific theory and practice.
Interest in them is growing, and further research shows that their properties can be modified, combined with other systems, and potentially used in real-world technologies of the future. This makes time crystals not only a curiosity for theoretical physicists, but also an innovative and practical topic for quantum engineering and future technologies.
Bibliography
- Jere Mäkinen et al., Continuous time crystal coupled to a mechanical mode as a cavity-optomechanics-like platform, Nature Communications (2025);
- Time crystals could power future quantum computers, Phys.org (2025);
- Time crystals could power future quantum computers, Aalto University (2025);
- A space-time crystal, ScienceDaily (2021);
- Exotic ‘time crystals’ could be used as memory in quantum computers, LiveScience (2026).
