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Updated: Sep 21, 2025

Rapid Repetition Rate Fluctuation Measurement of Soliton Crystals in a Microresonator
Published on: December 15, 2021
Nonlinear two-level dynamics of quantum time crystals
S Autti1,2, P J Heikkinen3,4, J Nissinen3
1Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, POB 15100, FI-00076, Aalto, Finland. s.autti@lancaster.ac.uk.
Abstract:
A time crystal is a macroscopic quantum system in periodic motion in its ground state. In our experiments, two coupled time crystals consisting of spin-wave quasiparticles (magnons) form a macroscopic two-level system. The two levels evolve in time as determined intrinsically by a nonlinear feedback, allowing us to construct spontaneous two-level dynamics. In the course of a level crossing, magnons move from the ground level to the excited level driven by the Landau-Zener effect, combined with Rabi population oscillations. We demonstrate that magnon time crystals allow access to every aspect and detail of quantum-coherent interactions in a single run of the experiment. Our work opens an outlook for the detection of surface-bound Majorana fermions in the underlying superfluid system, and invites technological exploitation of coherent magnon phenomena - potentially even at room temperature.
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