Researchers at Rutgers College–New Brunswick have recognized a brand new class of supplies known as intercrystals that would play a key position in powering future applied sciences.
An intercrystal shaped by overlaying twisted graphene on hexagonal boron nitride. Picture Credit score: Andrei Lab/Rutgers College
These supplies exhibit novel digital behaviors that, in line with the analysis crew, may result in advances in environment friendly digital elements, quantum computing, and extra sustainable supplies.
In a examine revealed in Nature Supplies, the crew described how they created intercrystals by stacking two ultrathin graphene layers—every only one atom thick—at a slight twist angle on a layer of hexagonal boron nitride, a fabric made from boron and nitrogen atoms organized in a hexagonal grid.
This delicate misalignment shaped moiré patterns, interference patterns just like these seen when overlapping fantastic mesh screens, which dramatically altered how electrons moved by way of the construction.
Our discovery opens a brand new path for materials design. Intercrystals give us a brand new deal with to regulate digital habits utilizing geometry alone, with out having to vary the fabric’s chemical composition.
Eva Andrei, Board of Governors Professor and Examine Lead Creator, Division of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers College
By higher understanding and manipulating the habits of electrons inside these supplies, researchers imagine intercrystals may result in extra environment friendly transistors and sensors—applied sciences that historically depend on extra advanced supplies and processing strategies.
You’ll be able to think about designing a whole digital circuit the place each perform – switching, sensing, sign propagation – is managed by tuning geometry on the atomic stage. Intercrystals might be the constructing blocks of such future applied sciences.
Jedediah Pixley, Examine Co-Creator and Affiliate Professor, Physics, Rutgers College
This analysis builds on a rising subject in physics referred to as twistronics, the place supplies are layered at exact angles to type moiré patterns. These configurations can considerably alter electron habits, giving rise to properties not seen in typical crystals.
Andrei and her crew helped launch this subject again in 2009 after they demonstrated that twisted graphene buildings may reshape digital properties, sparking curiosity in moiré-pattern-based supplies.
In typical crystals—supplies with a repeating atomic grid—electron motion is effectively understood and predictable attributable to their symmetry. However in intercrystals, even small structural adjustments can dramatically affect digital properties.
This opens the door to uncommon phenomena like superconductivity and magnetism—traits not often present in normal crystals. Superconductors, for instance, conduct electrical energy with zero resistance, enabling steady present circulate.
The researchers imagine intercrystals may contribute to next-generation electronics, together with low-loss circuits, atomic-scale sensors, and elements for quantum computer systems and different superior units.
“As a result of these buildings may be made out of ample, non-toxic parts reminiscent of carbon, boron and nitrogen, somewhat than uncommon earth parts, additionally they provide a extra sustainable and scalable pathway for future applied sciences,” mentioned Andrei.
Intercrystals stand other than typical crystals and quasicrystals, a kind of fabric found in 1982 with an ordered however non-repeating construction.
The Rutgers crew coined the time period intercrystals as a result of these supplies mix traits of each: like quasicrystals, they function non-repeating patterns, however additionally they share sure symmetries with common crystals.
“The invention of quasicrystals within the Eighties challenged the previous guidelines about atomic order. With intercrystals, we go a step additional, displaying that supplies may be engineered to entry new phases of matter by exploiting geometric frustration on the smallest scale,” mentioned Andrei.
The crew is optimistic about the place this discovery could lead on.
“That is just the start. We’re excited to see the place this discovery will lead us and the way it will affect know-how and science within the years to come back,” mentioned Pixley.
Different Rutgers contributors to the examine included analysis associates Xinyuan Lai, Guohong Li, and Angela Coe of the Division of Physics and Astronomy. Collaborators from Japan’s Nationwide Institute for Supplies Science additionally took half within the analysis.
Journal Reference:
Lai, X., et al. (2025) Moiré periodic and quasiperiodic crystals in heterostructures of twisted bilayer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride. Nature Supplies. doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02222-w
