Scientists at the University of Washington (UW) have developed a new approach to switch the properties of a magic material, the moiré pattern. Made out of graphene, the moiré pattern can switch states from being a superconductor to an insulator. Interestingly, UW researchers also found that adjusting the strain on the material changed its resistance by a factor of 100.
The moiré pattern is made using tiny robotic manipulators to lay single-atom-thin carbon sheets on top of each other. As the top sheet rotates, the identical atomic lattices twist together to form a complex moiré pattern that expands and contracts with the changing angle.
In 2018, researchers at MIT showed that when the top layer is rotated to an angle of 1.1 degrees and cooled to temperatures near absolute zero, the material becomes superconducting. In this state, the material allows electrons to flow freely and can be used to develop superconducting materials for computing, energy, and quantum sensing applications.
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