How 'magic angle' graphene is stirring up physics

Misaligned stacks of the wonder material exhibit superconductivity and other curious properties.

Physicists are optimistic that the crossover between two previously separate fields — 2D materials and strongly correlated systems — will lead to exciting results. “It’s giving us an opportunity to talk to a whole community of people we haven’t had the chance to talk to in the past,” says Dean. And applied physicists are thinking about how the unusual properties of twisted 2D stacks might be harnessed to store and process information in super-efficient ways. Rotating or squeezing materials could also become a new way to switch an electronic device’s behaviour.