Scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick have identified a new type of material known as intercrystals, which display unusual electronic behaviors that may help shape future technologies.
According to the research team, intercrystals demonstrate electronic characteristics not previously observed, opening the door to progress in areas such as advanced electronic devices, quantum computing, and sustainable materials.
The findings, published in Nature Materials, describe how the researchers created intercrystals by layering two sheets of graphene—each just one atom thick and arranged in a honeycomb-like grid—on top of a crystal of hexagonal boron nitride (a compound made of boron and nitrogen). By slightly twisting the graphene layers, they produced moiré patterns (similar to the visual ripples that appear when two fine mesh screens overlap). This small structural shift dramatically influenced the way electrons traveled through the material.
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