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Two-dimensional materials

Not just a phase

Nature Physics volume 12, pages 206–207 (2016)Cite this article

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In some two-dimensional materials, there's a puzzling intermediate metallic phase between superconducting and insulating states. Experiments on ultraclean crystalline samples suggest this metallic phase could be bosonic.

Whether they are as elemental as photons or as complex as helium atoms, bosons exhibit the rather democratic property of being able to occupy the same quantum state irrespective of filling. Consequently, the fermionic concept of partial occupancy of a quantum state is lacking for bosons and, as a result, so is the associated rule that partially filled bands produce metallic transport. However, experiments by Adam Tsen and colleagues1, reported in Nature Physics, suggest that a bosonic metallic state can form once a two-dimensional crystalline superconductor is destroyed.

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Figure 1: Bosonic ground states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philip W. Phillips is in the Department of Physics and Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA,

    Philip W. Phillips

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  1. Philip W. Phillips
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Correspondence to Philip W. Phillips.

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Phillips, P. Not just a phase. Nature Phys 12, 206–207 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3682

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