If you’ve peered through a window screen and suddenly saw a geometric design in the mesh, then you have observed what scientists call a moiré pattern. This phenomenon in physics occurs when straight or curved lines are overlaid. Scientists who develop new materials actively study moiré patterns in overlapping atomically thin materials because of the electronic phenomena they produce, such as unique superconductivity and ferromagnetism.
A research team from Florida State University (FSU) used their U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) ACCESS allocation on Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s (PSC) Bridges-2 to explore how a type of matter on a triangular moiré superlattice behaves, suggesting how scientists can improve their theory and supplying a new tool for materials engineers to use in designing devices.
Research into moiré patterns has become increasingly important as electronics shrink in size. To discover better ways to design the newest tech, researchers need to first understand how the moiré patterns in devices affect the flow of electrons from transistor to transistor.
Aman Kumar, Hitesh Changlani and Cyprian Lewandowski are all part of the FSU team researching a triangular moiré superlattice formed by electrons in a specialized quantum state known as a Wigner crystal. To perform their simulations, they needed the power of a supercomputer. These simulations allowed the team to discover the specific behaviors of the Wigner crystal – details which will be helpful to engineers who design using them. They published their research in npj Quantum Materials.
You can read more details about this research in the original article here: Bridges-2 Computations Verify Weird Rules for Moiré Materials
If you’re a researcher in need of compute power for your simulations, you can get started with ACCESS here.
Resource Provider Institution(s): Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC)
Resources Used: Bridges-2
Affiliations: Florida State University
Funding Agency: NSF
Grant or Allocation Number(s): PHY240324
The science story featured here was enabled by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program, which is supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.