Researchers Use Tantalum Crystals to Discover Massless Particle

Gizmag reported that students at Princeton University have discovered the Weyl Fermion, a particle that could create massless electrons that could allow for rapidly accelerated electronics. Tantalum played a key part in the discovery.
As quoted in the publication:

The international team led by Princeton University scientists used the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) and Laboratory for Topological Quantum Matter and Spectroscopy to look into many dozens of crystal arrangements before alighting upon the asymmetrical tantalum arsenide crystal (a semi-metal that has the properties of both a conductor and an insulator) as a prime candidate in the hunt for the theorized particle.
Over-sized crystals of the tantalum arsenide were first placed in a scanning tunneling spectromicroscope cooled to near absolute zero to determine if they matched the hypothetical specifications for accommodating a Weyl fermion. Then, once the crystals had passed that test, the team took them to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California where high-energy photon beams fired from a particle accelerator were shone through them. This test finally confirmed the presence of the existence of the long sought after Weyl fermion.

Click here to read the full article from Gizmag.