A crystal lattice is formed by a repeated arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules. Due to the enormous amount of atoms involved it is extremely unlikely that all these will be arranged in perfect order. Some atoms will not be exactly in the right place with the result that the lattice will contain defects. The […]
Two-dimensional materials, such as transition-metal dichalcogenides embedded in optical cavities, stand out as an excellent platform where strong light-matter interactions can be studied. Moreover, their band structures bring about nontrivial topological features, including the possibility of inducing some really interesting ones, like the polariton anomalous Hall effect. But, before getting into that let’s go through […]
Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials • Quantum physics
Imagine a material where electrons glide through without any resistance, moving like a perfectly synchronized dance troupe. This phenomenon, known as superconductivity, allows electricity to flow with zero energy loss, holding immense promise for everything from ultra-efficient power lines to advanced quantum computers. A a team of researchers dives into this fascinating world, focusing on […]
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are layered compounds which can be thinned down to the single-layer limit. While mechanical exfoliation generates atomically thin TMD flakes possessing an area of a few square microns, chemical and physical methods provide high-quality monolayers on large-area substrates, which are suitable for actual technological applications. TMDs are a class of van […]
Symmetry is a unifying principle that governs all aspects of physics. The physical properties of crystalline solids are no different. But, as symmetry is progressively lowered through the 32 crystallographic point groups, novel transport effects emerge. Crystal symmetry dictates also the geometry of a phenomenon that has attracted a lot of attention in recent years […]
Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • DIPC Interfaces • Quantum physics
In the world of quantum materials, some of the most important discoveries come not from finding new particles, but from learning to see familiar electrons in a new way. A striking example comes from a single layer of niobium diselenide, a crystal just one layer thick, where researchers have now directly mapped a hidden pattern […]
When we think of faster, cheaper electronics, we usually think “smaller transistors.” But the future is also about stacking—adding new layers of components on top of finished silicon chips. That’s called back‑end‑of‑line (BEOL) integration, and it only works if everything you add can be made at low temperatures (generally below ~400–450 °C), otherwise you damage […]
A method that can grow a useful insulating material into exceptionally high-quality films that are just one atom thick and are suitable for industrial-scale production has been developed. The material, called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), is used in semiconductor devices and can also enhance the performance of other two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and […]
Twisted bilayer and multilayer systems represent two-dimensional materials, where atom-thick layers of the same or different materials are superimposed and rotated by an arbitrary twist angle. Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) represents arguably the most prominent physical system of this kind, the bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) the other. The effect of twisting two periodic […]
Two-dimensional (2D) materials are an ideal platform to artificially engineer heterostructures with new functionalities due to the weak van der Waals bonding between layers. Monolayers hosting symmetry-broken phases, such as superconductivity, magnetism, ferroelectricity, charge density waves (CDWs), or multiferroicity, represent the most interesting building blocks to design novel phases of matter. One of the main […]