Finding the ‘magic angle’ to create a new superconductor

Earlier this year, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published research that showed that graphene could become a superconductor if one piece of graphene were laid on top of another piece and the layers twisted to a specific angle—what they termed "the magic angle." That magic angle, scientists thought, was between 1 degree and 1.2 degrees. Now scientists at The Ohio State University, in collaboration with scientists around the world, have found that graphene layers still superconducted at a smaller angle, around 0.9 degrees.