New research by Prof. Eun-Ah Kim and recent grad Michael Matty describes a phase in between the liquid and the solid for electron crystals – a liquid crystal state.

For theoretical physicist Debanjan Chowdhury, quantum materials are at once puzzles and pathways to innovation. “These materials are exciting,” he says. “They hold a lot of promise to further our basic understanding of quantum mechanics as it applies to trillions of interacting electrons. They also could potentially drive the next generation of quantum technologies.”

Physicist Kin Fai Mak has received a $1.25 million grant from the Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative to further his research into electron behaviors by studying two-dimensional crystals.