Scientists shuffle the deck to create materials with new quantum behaviors

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides or TMDCs -- materials composed of metal nanolayers sandwiched between two other layers of chalcogens -- have become extremely attractive to the research community. Similar to graphene, they not only retain some of the unique properties of the bulk material, but also demonstrate direct-gap semiconducting behavior, excellent electrocatalytic activity and unique quantum phenomena such as charge density waves.