---
title: "Scientists Create Material Made Entirely Out of Electrons"
description: "Scientists managed to create — and get a clear image of — a Wigner crystal, which is a lattice structure made entirely of electrons."
date: "2021-10-05"
modified: "2021-10-05"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/material-made-entirely-electrons"
categories:
  - "Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "physics"
  - "the digest"
  - "wigner crystals"
---

# Scientists Create Material Made Entirely Out of Electrons

![Scientists managed to create — and get a clear image of — a Wigner crystal, which is a lattice structure made entirely of electrons.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/material-made-entirely-electrons-1.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Cornell University/Futurism\</em\>*

## Wigner Crystals

For the first time, scientists have managed to create and take images of a Wigner crystal: a bizarre material, made entirely out of electrons, that was first theorized 90 years ago.

Scientists managed to arrange the electrons into a honeycomb-like lattice by sandwiching them in an electric field between two atom-thin layers of tungsten compounds, [according to research](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03874-9>) published in the journal *Nature* last week. The ability to tame them — which scientists accomplished by exploiting the tiniest differences in the atomic structures of the two tungsten layers — marks an incredible experimental achievement that has, until now, eluded the most accomplished labs in physics.

## Mic Drop

Other researchers have claimed that they created Wigner crystals in the past, [and *Nature News* notes](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02657-6>) that they had some convincing evidence. But no one's actually presented imaged evidence of their crystal before, study coauthor and University of California, Berkeley physicist Feng Wang told *Nature News* in the physicist's version of a microphone drop.

"If you say you have an electron crystal, show me the crystal," he said.

## Say Cheese

No camera could have possibly imaged the crystal, so the scientists had to get creative. Instead, they managed to get their snapshot using a [scanning tunneling microscope](<https://futurism.com/for-the-first-time-quantum-physicists-were-able-to-pinpoint-the-location-of-an-atom>) (STM), which uses a probe to detect the exact location of the gridlocked electrons by observing how they respond to a tiny jolt of electricity. It's a move that other scientists unrelated to the experiment told *Nature News* was particularly clever.

"I think that's a great advancement, being able to perform STM on this system," Columbia University physicist Carmen Rubio said.

**READ MORE:** [This is what a solid made of electrons looks like](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02657-6>) \[*Nature News*\]

**More on Wigner:** *[Scientists Have Finally Created Metallic Hydrogen](<https://futurism.com/scientists-have-finally-created-metallic-hydrogen>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)