| Date | 29th, Dec 2019 |
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Artistic illustration of the bi-layer and the zoo of different states of matter that have been discovered. Credit: © ICFO / F. Vialla
A team of ICFO researchers used twisted bi-layer graphene to unveil a new zoo of previously unobserved states, from superconducting to insulating to a new range of magnetic and topological states. The study has been published in Nature.
Last year, graphene made another major splash in the headlines when scientists discovered that by simply rotating two layers of this material one on top of the other, it could behave like a superconductor where electrical currents can flow without resistance. This new phase of matter was seen to appear only when the two graphene layers were twisted between each other at an angle of 1.1º (no more and no less) – the so-called magic angle, and was always accompanied by enigmatic correlated insulator phases, similar to what is observed in mysterious cuprate high-temperature superconductors.
