New physical behavior, such as Mott insulating behavior, unconventional superconductivity and quantum spin liquid behavior, occurs when electrons inside a material interact with each other. When electrons are confined to lower dimensions such as 2-D planes, these effects can become even stronger.
Inspired by these observations, researchers at UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Stanford University, and other universities worldwide have recently carried out a study investigating the unique behavior of two-dimensional 1T-TaSe2. Their paper, featured in Nature Physics, indicates that electron correlations in this material result in a robust Mott insulator state that is accompanied by unusual orbital texture.
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