- February 23, 2017
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
- Scientists have discovered the magnetism of electrons in three layers of graphene. This study reveals a new kind of magnet and provides insight on how electronic devices using graphene could be made for fundamental studies as well as various applications.
Once electrons travel long distances, implying there are few imperfections, one notices the faint whispers of electrons "talking to each other." Reducing the imperfections is akin to making a room quiet to enable the faint whispers of electronic interactions to develop between many electrons.
In a study, led by PhD student Biswajit Datta, Professor Mandar Deshmukh's group at TIFR realized just this kind of silence allowing electronic interactions to be observed in three layers of graphene. The study reveals a new kind of magnet and provides insight on how electronic devices using graphene could be made for fundamental studies as well as applications. This work discovers the magnetism of electrons in three layers of graphene at a low temperature of -272 Celsius. The magnetism of electrons arises from the coordinated "whispers" between many electrons.
Materials provided by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
- Biswajit Datta, Santanu Dey, Abhisek Samanta, Hitesh Agarwal, Abhinandan Borah, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Rajdeep Sensarma, Mandar M. Deshmukh. Strong electronic interaction and multiple quantum Hall ferromagnetic phases in trilayer graphene. Nature Communications, 2017; 8: 14518 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14518