2-D

“I'm hoping that MIT becomes a center for electron microscopy,” professor Frances Ross says. “There is nothing that exists with the capabilities that we are aiming for here.”

A wizard of ultrasharp imaging

To oversee its new cutting-edge electron microscopy systems, MIT sought out Frances Ross’ industry-honed expertise.

July 12, 2020

In this illustration, two sheets of graphene are stacked together at a slightly offset “magic” angle, which can become either an insulator or superconductor. “We placed one sheet of graphene on top of another, similar to placing plastic wrap on top of plastic wrap,” MIT professor Pablo Jarillo-Herrero says. “You would expect there would be wrinkles, and regions where the two sheets would...

Researchers map tiny twists in “magic-angle” graphene

Results could help designers engineer high-temperature superconductors and quantum computing devices.

May 7, 2020

MIT.nano announces the Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lectures

Cornell University’s Paul McEuen will inaugurate series to honor beloved MIT professor.

November 5, 2019

A novel model developed at MIT recovers valuable data lost from images and video that have been “collapsed” into lower dimensions. It can, for instance, recreate video from motion-blurred images or from cameras that capture people’s movement around corners as vague one-dimensional lines.

Recovering “lost dimensions” of images and video

Model could recreate video from motion-blurred images and “corner cameras,” may someday retrieve 3D data from 2D medical images.

October 16, 2019

This diagram shows an edge-on view of the molecular structure of the new coating material. The thin layered material being coated is shown in violet at bottom, and the ambient air is shown as the scattered molecules of oxygen and water at the top. The dark layer in between is the protective material, which allows some oxygen (red) through, forming an oxide layer below that provides added protecti...

A new way to corrosion-proof thin atomic sheets

Ultrathin coating could protect 2D materials from corrosion, enabling their use in optics and electronics.

October 4, 2019

MIT physics graduate student Dahlia Klein (left) and postdoc David MacNeill showed that magnetic order and stacking order are very strongly linked in two-dimensional magnets such as chromium chloride and chromium iodide, giving engineers a tool to vary the material’s magnetic properties.

Controlling 2-D magnetism with stacking order

MIT researchers discover why magnetism in certain materials is different in atomically thin layers and their bulk forms.

September 30, 2019

Left to right: Postdoc Shu Fen Tan, graduate student Kate Reidy, and Professor Frances Ross, all of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, sit in front of a high vacuum evaporator system.

Creating new opportunities from nanoscale materials

MIT Professor Frances Ross is pioneering new techniques to study materials growth and how structure relates to performance.

September 5, 2019

In two-dimensional tungsten ditelluride, two different states of matter — topological insulator and superconductor — can be chosen at will, MIT researchers discovered.

First two-dimensional material that performs as both topological insulator and superconductor

MIT researchers have demonstrated that a tungsten ditelluride-based transistor combines two different electronic states of matter.

October 31, 2018

Researchers in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed a technique to harvest 2-inch diameter wafers of 2-D material within just a few minutes.

Researchers quickly harvest 2-D materials, bringing them closer to commercialization

Efficient method for making single-atom-thick, wafer-scale materials opens up opportunities in flexible electronics.

October 11, 2018

Physicists at MIT and Harvard University have found that graphene, a lacy, honeycomb-like sheet of carbon atoms, can behave at two electrical extremes: as an insulator, in which electrons are completely blocked from flowing; and as a superconductor, in which electrical current can stream through without resistance.

Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is both

When rotated at a "magic angle," graphene sheets can form an insulator or a superconductor.

March 5, 2018

This summer, Jennifer Coulter worked on modeling the behavior of ferromagnetic particles with Alfredo Alexander-Katz, the Walter Henry Gale Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.

Modeling how colloidal particles spin through a fixed array

Summer Scholar Jennifer Coulter works on computer simulations with associate professor of materials science Alfredo Alexander-Katz.

August 29, 2016

Membrane structures in plant xylem from different species are being investigated for use in water filtration.

J-WAFS Solutions program awards $750,000 in commercialization grants

Four new projects and one renewal receive $150,000 in funding for 2016-2017.

August 12, 2016

The process of making a stack of parallel sheets of graphene starts with a chemical vapor deposition process (I) to make a graphene sheet with a polymer coating; these layers are then stacked (II), folded and cut (III) and stacked again and pressed, multiplying the number of layers. The team used a related method the team to produce scroll-shaped fibers.

Borrowing from pastry chefs, engineers create nanolayered composites

Method to stack hundreds of nanoscale layers could open new vistas in materials science.

July 21, 2016

MIT postdoc Junwei Liu and collaborators are proposing a new random access memory (RAM) device architecture using ferroelectric tunneling RAM.

Charging up random access memory

Researchers demonstrate room-temperature ferroelectric states in ultra-thin films of tin and tellurium.

July 14, 2016

Emission spectra are a widely used method for identifying chemical compounds; the bright lines reveal the different frequencies of light that can be emitted by an atom. Here, a normal emission spectrum for an atom in a high-energy state (top) is compared to the emission from the same atom placed just a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) away from graphene that has been doped with charge carrie...

Study opens new realms of light-matter interaction

Some “forbidden” light emissions are in fact possible, could enable new sensors and light-emitting devices.