Superconductors work like express trains for electricity. Once electric current enters one, it can travel through without resistance or energy loss. Because of this remarkable efficiency, superconductors are already key to technologies such as MRI scanners and particle accelerators.
However, these "conventional" superconductors only operate at extremely cold temperatures. They must be kept in specialized cooling systems to remain in their superconducting state. If materials could superconduct at warmer, more practical temperatures, they could transform modern technology -- from creating energy grids that waste no power to enabling more functional quantum computers. To reach that goal, researchers at MIT and other institutions are exploring "unconventional" superconductors, materials that defy the rules of traditional ones and may lead to the next big breakthrough.
In a major step forward, MIT physicists have observed clear evidence of unconventional superconductivity in "magic-angle" twisted tri-layer graphene (MATTG). This unique material is created by stacking three atom-thin sheets of graphene at a very specific angle. That tiny twist dramatically alters the material's properties, giving rise to strange and promising quantum effects.
While earlier studies hinted that MATTG might host unconventional superconductivity, the new findings, published in Science, offer the most direct confirmation to date.
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