A scalable platform for two-dimensional metals

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT

Using a new method for stabilizing a two-dimensional (2D) metal on a large-area platform, researchers probed the origins of the material’s superconductivity at the Advanced Light Source (ALS).

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT

The work represents a notable milestone in advancing 2D materials toward broad applications in topological computing, advanced optics, and molecular sensing.

Expanding the scientific palette

If you confine everyday metals to layers only a few atoms thick, they acquire new properties that are different from those exhibited by their more common bulk forms. The ability to synthesize such two-dimensional (2D) metals means that the range of materials available for novel uses can be expanded to different areas of the periodic table—providing a much richer “scientific palette” of properties for applications in topological computing, advanced optics, and molecular sensing.

Read more on the ALS website

Image: A confined layer of metal atoms (silver spheres) on a silicon carbide (SiC) substrate is capped by a layer of graphene, allowing for new forms of low-dimensional metals with unique properties. Gold spheres represent Cooper pairs, responsible for conventional superconductivity. 

Credit: Yihuang Xiong/Penn State

A series of stories celebrating the periodic table’s 150th anniversary

The ESRF is celebrating the International Year of the Periodic Table, because its elements are omnipresent in the research done at the facility. We will publish a series of stories on different elements during the coming weeks. The first series is about the fascinating elements at the bottom of the periodic table.

See the series start here on the ESRF website

Image: Kristina Kvashnina in front of the periodic table. She is from the Helmoltz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) but based at the Rossendorf Beamline (BM20) of ESRF in Grenoble.
Credits: Moulyneux