Scientists studying ‘magic-angle’ graphene have captured the clearest evidence yet of the electronic signature behind its superconductivity, cutting through years of speculation over what actually drives its exotic behaviour.
‘When superconductivity was first discovered in magic-angle graphene, it was surprising,’ says Jeong Min Park at Princeton University. ‘Graphene by itself was not a superconductor, yet simply twisting layers turned it into one.’
This is because when two or more graphene layers are twisted at a very specific angle – the magic angle – electrons in the system slow down dramatically. ‘When [this happens], they interact with each other much more strongly, and this gives rise to … new behaviours that don’t exist in the individual layers,’ says Park.
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