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2D Puddles of Electrons Emerge in a 3D Superconducting Material
It s an example of how surprising properties can spontaneously emerge in complex materials a phenomenon scientists hope to harness for novel technologies
April 13, 2021
Carolina Parra (center), who as a Stanford postdoc carried out the experiments that led to the visualization of these intriguing results, now heads a lab at the Federico Santa María Technical University in Valparaíso, Chile, focusing on interdisciplinary studies of nanoscale biological materials. She recently won a grant to acquire and operate the first-ever low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope in South America, which she plans to use to continue this line of research.
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It’s an example of how surprising properties can spontaneously emerge in complex materials – a phenomenon scientists hope to harness for novel technologies.
Creating a two-dimensional material, just a few atoms thick, is often an arduous process requiring sophisticated equipment. So scientists were surprised to see 2D puddles emerge inside a three-dimensional superconductor – a material that allows electrons to travel with 100% efficiency and zero resistance – with no prompting.
Within those puddles, superconducting electrons acted as if they were confined inside an incredibly thin, sheet-like plane, a situation that requires them to somehow cross over to another dimension, where different rules of quantum physics apply.
The emergence of 2D puddles of superconductivity within a 3D superconductor may be an example of how 3D superconductors reorganize themselves just before undergoing an abrupt shift into an insulating state. It also suggests a novel and potentially easier way to make 2D materials.