Who’d Have Guessed? Graphene is Strange!

Graphene always sounds exciting, although we aren’t sure what we want to do with it. One of the most promising features of the monolayer carbon structure is that under the right conditions, it can superconduct, and some research into how that works could have big impacts on practical superconductor technology.

Past experiments have shown that very cold stacks of graphene (two or three sheets) can superconduct if the sheets are at very particular angles, but no one really understands why. A researcher at Northeaster and another at Harvard realized they were both confused about the possible mechanism. Together, they have started progressing toward a better description of superconductivity in graphene.

Part of the problem has been that it is hard to make large pieces of multi-layer graphene. By creating two-ply pieces and using special techniques, an international team is finding that quantum geometry explains how graphene superconductors resist changes in current flow more readily than conventional superconductors.

Another team found that adding another layer makes the material behave more like a family of conventional higher-temperature superconductors. The research appears in two different papers. One covers the two-ply material. The other talks about the material with three layers.

Making little bits of graphene isn’t hard. Making it in quantity is a different story. We keep dreaming of what we could do with a room-temperature superconductor.