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Research Matters: Physics Magic with a Twist

University of Rochester physicist Nickolas Vamivakas finds twisting 2D materials creates artificial atoms with quantum potential.

Apr 29, 2025

1 min

University of Rochester scientists have discovered that twisting together two atom-thin flakes of molybdenum diselenide at high angles produces artificial atoms that can act as quantum information bits, or qubits.


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The discovery was made in the laboratory of Nickolas Vamivakas, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics, who says he hopes the artificial atoms can be used like memory or nodes in a quantum network.


“These could be the backbone for devices like the next generation of lasers or even tools to stimulate quantum physics,” Vamivakas says.


The revelations built on experiments that found twisting a pair of one-atom-thick layers of graphene at the “magic” angle of 1.1 degrees created a superconductive material.


Molybdenum diselenide, like graphene, is a 2D material. When monolayers of it are twisted at angles up to 40 degrees, they produce excitons, or artificial atoms, that retain information when activated by light.


The discovery was recently published in Nano Letters.


To learn more about Vamivakas’s research, read about it at the University of Rochester News Center and contact him at nick.vamivakas@rochester.edu.


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