A Princeton University-led team of scientists has imaged the precise microscopic underpinnings responsible for many quantum phases observed in a material known as magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG). This remarkable material, which consists of twisted layers of carbon atoms arranged in a two-dimensional hexagonal pattern, has in recent years been at the forefront of research in physics, especially in condensed matter physics.
were first discovered in 2018 by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero and his team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . They showed that this material can be superconducting, a state in which electrons flow freely without any resistance. This state is vital to many of our everyday electronics, including magnets for MRIs andas well as in the making of quantum bits that are being used to build quantum computers.
"MATBG shows a lot of interesting physics in a single material platform－much of which remains to be understood," said Kevin Nuckolls, the co-lead author of the paper, who earned his Ph.D. in 2023 in Princeton's physics department and is now a postdoctoral fellow at MIT."This insulating phase, in which electrons are completely blocked from flowing, has been a real mystery."
The study is the culmination of two years of work and was achieved by a team from Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley. The scientists harnessed the power of the scanning tunneling microscope to probe this very minute realm. This tool relies on a technique called"quantum tunneling," where electrons are funneled between the sharp metallic tip of the microscope and the sample.
"The technical breakthrough that made this paper happen was our group's ability to make the samples so pristine in terms of their cleanliness such that these high-resolution images that you see in the paper were possible," said Ali Yazdani, the Class of 1909 Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Complex Materials at Princeton University."In other words, you have to make one hundred thousand atoms without a single flaw or disorder.
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