MIT physicists and colleagues have created a new material with unusual superconducting and metallic properties, thanks to wavy layers of atoms only billionths of a meter thick that repeat themselves over and over to create a macroscopic sample that can be manipulated by hand. The large size of the sample makes it much easier to explore its quantum behavior, or interactions at the atomic scale that give rise to its properties.
The work, reported in Nature, is also important because the material was synthesized through rational design. In other words, the recipe for the material is based on the team's insights into the materials science and chemistry of this family of materials. As a result, the physicists are confident they can create even more new materials with unusual properties.
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