Graphene, an extremely thin material with incredible quantum properties

2010, Nobel Prize in Physics Credited to Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, two Russian researchers, for their work on graphene. Transparent, ultra-thin and a hundred times stronger than steel, this two-dimensional crystal of carbon is an excellent electrical and thermal conductor and its potential applications are numerous.

Electronic components and sensors, the development of composite materials whose properties could be unprecedented, the improvement of the mechanical behavior of some plastics: the potential applications of graphene regularly spark enthusiasm within the scientific community – especially since two Russian researchers whose research in 2004 managed to obtain such a stable layer of monoatomic carbon.

Having become a star among the stars of the physics world, graphene has never stopped flowing ink. And so, in March 2018, during Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society, Physicist Pablo Jarillo-Herrero caused a sensation by revealing the amazing quantum properties of this carbon crystal.

One of the highlights of the MIT researcher’s presentation, says New Scientist Focus on the fact that an array of two sheets of graphene can form a strong insulator, provided they are placed under specific conditions (relative position of one relative to the other, torsion, rotation). and that in other configurations, it would have been made into a superconducting group.

Since then, quantum physicists have found unique properties in graphene, capable for example of creating magnetic vortices. “What’s exciting about these systems is their enormous potential for surprise.”, sums up Amir Yaqoubi, of Harvard University. But what’s most exciting, New Scientist adds, is that science is still in the early days of its discoveries on graphene.

Simple and funky

One of the properties of this material is that the carbon atoms are arranged in it in a hexagonal structure that the electrons, having great freedom of movement, can circle around as they see fit, with a similar speed possible. .

The sheer purity of graphene has more than one advantage, including the advantage of enhancing interactions between electrons, which, so to speak, have only two (not three) dimensions of mobility. This does not fail to enhance the telescope and unprecedented unions, thus causing electronic phenomena that New Scientist describes as “Coward”. Simply.

On the University of New Jersey side, the team led by Eva Andre discovered that provided a certain rotation angle (no more than 1.16 degrees) was respected for the first sheet of graphene compared to another, it was possible to witness the sudden paralysis of electrons. Same note by the American University of Austin and Tel Aviv University in Israel: Electrons stop. Texas-based researcher Alan McDonald sums it up, Which was a complete surprise to us.”

From here, the playing field seems endless. “We’ve barely scratched the surface of the hundreds of systems we can build, with different components, different geometries, and different degrees of complexity.”Pablo Jarillo-Herrero confirms. We’re not done yet hearing about graphene and its amazing properties, which will surely lead to great technical developments if we allow them to express their full potential.