Date | 6th, Nov 2018 |
---|
Home > Press > Physicists name and codify new field in nanotechnology: 'electron quantum metamaterials:' UC Riverside's Nathaniel Gabor and colleague formulate a vision for the field in a perspective article
Abstract: When two atomically thin two-dimensional layers are stacked on top of each other and one layer is made to rotate against the second layer, they begin to produce patterns ' the familiar moir' patterns ' that neither layer can generate on its own and that facilitate the passage of light and electrons, allowing for materials that exhibit unusual phenomena. For example, when two graphene layers are overlaid and the angle between them is 1.1 degrees, the material becomes a superconductor.
Riverside, CA | Posted on November 5th, 2018
'It's a bit like driving past a vineyard and looking out the window at the vineyard rows. Every now and then, you see no rows because you're looking directly along a row,' said Nathaniel Gabor, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside. 'This is akin to what happens when two atomic layers are stacked on top of each other. At certain angles of twist, everything is energetically allowed. It adds up just right to allow for interesting possibilities of energy transfer.'
This is the future of new materials being synthesized by twisting and stacking atomically thin layers, and is still in the 'alchemy' stage, Gabor added. To bring it all under one roof, he and physicist Justin C. W. Song of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, have proposed this field of research be called 'electron quantum metamaterials' and have just published a perspective article in Nature Nanotechnology.
'We highlight the potential of engineering synthetic periodic arrays with feature sizes below the wavelength of an electron. Such engineering allows the electrons to be manipulated in unusual ways, resulting in a new range of synthetic quantum metamaterials with unconventional responses,' Gabor said.
Metamaterials are a class of material engineered to produce properties that do not occur naturally. Examples include optical cloaking devices and super-lenses akin to the Fresnel lens that lighthouses use. Nature, too, has adopted such techniques ' for example, in the unique coloring of butterfly wings ' to manipulate photons as they move through nanoscale structures.
'Unlike photons that scarcely interact with each other, however, electrons in subwavelength structured metamaterials are charged, and they strongly interact,' Gabor said. 'The result is an enormous variety of emergent phenomena and radically new classes of interacting quantum metamaterials.'
Gabor and Song were invited by Nature Nanotechnology to write a review paper. But the pair chose to delve deeper and lay out the fundamental physics that may explain much of the research in electron quantum metamaterials. They wrote a perspective paper instead that envisions the current status of the field and discusses its future.
'Researchers, including in our own labs, were exploring a variety of metamaterials but no one had given the field even a name,' said Gabor, who directs the Quantum Materials Optoelectronics lab at UCR. 'That was our intent in writing the perspective. We are the first to codify the underlying physics. In a way, we are expressing the periodic table of this new and exciting field. It has been a herculean task to codify all the work that has been done so far and to present a unifying picture. The ideas and experiments have matured, and the literature shows there has been rapid progress in creating quantum materials for electrons. It was time to rein it all in under one umbrella and offer a road map to researchers for categorizing future work.'
In the perspective, Gabor and Song collect early examples in electron metamaterials and distil emerging design strategies for electronic control from them. They write that one of the most promising aspects of the new field occurs when electrons in subwavelength-structure samples interact to exhibit unexpected emergent behavior.
'The behavior of superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene that emerged was a surprise,' Gabor said. 'It shows, remarkably, how electron interactions and subwavelength features could be made to work together in quantum metamaterials to produce radically new phenomena. It is examples like this that paint an exciting future for electronic metamaterials. Thus far, we have only set the stage for a lot of new work to come.'
Gabor, a recipient of a Cottrell Scholar Award and a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Azrieli Global Scholar Award, was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program and a National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research CAREER award.
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:Iqbal Pittalwala
(951) 827-6050@UCR_Sciencenews
Copyright © University of California - Riverside
If you have a comment, please Contact us.
Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
News and information
Scientists unravel 'Hall effect' mystery in search for next generation memory storage devices August 19th, 2022
Researchers design new inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics: Potential uses include printing electronic tattoos for medical tracking applications August 19th, 2022
Quantum Physics
HKU physicists found signatures of highly entangled quantum matter July 22nd, 2022
Quantum network nodes with warm atoms June 24th, 2022
Superconductivity
U-M researchers untangle the physics of high-temperature superconductors August 19th, 2022
Graphene/ Graphite
Buckyballs on gold are less exotic than graphene July 22nd, 2022
A novel graphene based NiSe2 nanocrystalline array for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction July 15th, 2022
2 Dimensional Materials
Buckyballs on gold are less exotic than graphene July 22nd, 2022
Controlled synthesis of crystal flakes paves path for advanced future electronics June 17th, 2022
Physics
Flexing the power of a conductive polymer: A new material holds promise for the next generation of organic electronics June 24th, 2022
Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy
New chip ramps up AI computing efficiency August 19th, 2022
Rice team eyes cells for sophisticated data storage: National Science Foundation backs effort to turn living cells into equivalent of computer RAM August 19th, 2022
UNC Charlotte-led team invents new anticoagulant platform, offering hope for advances for heart surgery, dialysis, other procedures July 15th, 2022
Possible Futures
New chip ramps up AI computing efficiency August 19th, 2022
Rice team eyes cells for sophisticated data storage: National Science Foundation backs effort to turn living cells into equivalent of computer RAM August 19th, 2022
Materials/Metamaterials
Strain-sensing smart skin ready to deploy: Nanotube-embedded coating detects threats from wear and tear in large structures July 15th, 2022
New protocol for assessing the safety of nanomaterials July 1st, 2022
Nanotubes: a promising solution for advanced rubber cables with 60% less conductive filler June 1st, 2022
Announcements
Scientists unravel 'Hall effect' mystery in search for next generation memory storage devices August 19th, 2022
Researchers design new inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics: Potential uses include printing electronic tattoos for medical tracking applications August 19th, 2022
Visualizing nanoscale structures in real time: Open-source software enables researchers to see materials in 3D while they're still on the electron microscope August 19th, 2022
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Scientists unravel 'Hall effect' mystery in search for next generation memory storage devices August 19th, 2022
Researchers design new inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics: Potential uses include printing electronic tattoos for medical tracking applications August 19th, 2022
Visualizing nanoscale structures in real time: Open-source software enables researchers to see materials in 3D while they're still on the electron microscope August 19th, 2022
Military
New chip ramps up AI computing efficiency August 19th, 2022
Strain-sensing smart skin ready to deploy: Nanotube-embedded coating detects threats from wear and tear in large structures July 15th, 2022
Boron nitride nanotube fibers get real: Rice lab creates first heat-tolerant, stable fibers from wet-spinning process June 24th, 2022
Grants/Sponsored Research/Awards/Scholarships/Gifts/Contests/Honors/Records
New chip ramps up AI computing efficiency August 19th, 2022
UNC Charlotte-led team invents new anticoagulant platform, offering hope for advances for heart surgery, dialysis, other procedures July 15th, 2022
Photoinduced large polaron transport and dynamics in organic-inorganic hybrid lead halide perovskite with terahertz probes July 8th, 2022
Luisier wins SNSF Advanced Grant to develop simulation tools for nanoscale devices July 8th, 2022
Photonics/Optics/Lasers
'Life-like' lasers can self-organise, adapt their structure, and cooperate July 15th, 2022
Electrically driven single microwire-based single-mode microlaser July 8th, 2022
Deep-ultraviolet nonlinear optical crystals: Concept development and materials discovery July 8th, 2022
Quantum nanoscience
Bumps could smooth quantum investigations: Rice University models show unique properties of 2D materials stressed by contoured substrates June 10th, 2022