2D Material Explorer

What Are 2D Materials?

2D materials are crystals just one or a few atoms thick. Graphene, isolated in 2004 (Nobel Prize 2010), was the first. Now hundreds exist: semiconducting MoS₂ for transistors, insulating hBN as the perfect substrate, black phosphorus with a tunable band gap, and many more with properties impossible in their bulk form.

Why stack them? By layering different 2D materials like atomic LEGO bricks, you create van der Waals heterostructures with designer properties. Twist two graphene layers to the "magic angle" (1.1°) and it becomes a superconductor. The possibilities are limitless.

📖 Deep Dive

Analogy 1

Imagine each 2D material as a single LEGO brick — graphene is the strong base plate, MoS₂ is the electronic component, and hBN is the smooth insulating spacer. Stack them in any order to build devices with custom properties, just like combining LEGO pieces to build anything you imagine.

Analogy 2

Bulk crystals are like a thick deck of cards held together by weak forces. Graphene isolation was like carefully peeling off a single card — that one card (atom-thick sheet) has properties the whole deck never showed. Each card-layer can be shuffled, twisted, or combined with cards from different decks.

🎯 Simulator Tips

Beginner

Start with Graphene and press Start to see electron flow. Try switching to MoS₂ to see how a semiconductor behaves differently — notice the band gap appears.

Intermediate

Add n-type or p-type doping and observe carrier behavior. Apply an electric field to bilayer graphene to open a band gap — a key technique in real research.

Expert

Set twist angle to 1.1° with 2 layers of graphene to discover the magic angle regime. Watch the band gap collapse as flat bands form — this is how superconductivity emerges in twisted bilayer graphene.

📚 Glossary

2D Material

Crystalline material consisting of a single or few atomic layers with unique properties distinct from bulk.

Graphene

Single layer of carbon atoms in hexagonal lattice — strongest, most conductive 2D material discovered.

Transition Metal Dichalcogenide

TMDCs like MoS2, WSe2 — semiconducting 2D materials with tunable bandgaps for electronics and optoelectronics.

Hexagonal Boron Nitride

h-BN — atomically flat insulator used as substrate and encapsulation for other 2D materials.

Van der Waals Heterostructure

Stacking different 2D materials layer by layer to create artificial materials with designed properties.

Moiré Pattern

Interference pattern when two 2D layers are slightly misaligned, creating flat bands and correlated phases.

Magic Angle

Specific twist angle (~1.1°) in bilayer graphene where flat bands produce superconductivity and correlated insulating states.

Exfoliation

Separating 2D layers from bulk crystals using mechanical (Scotch tape) or chemical methods.

Band Gap Engineering

Tuning electronic properties of 2D materials through strain, electric fields, or layer number.

Valleytronics

Using valley degree of freedom in TMDCs (K and K' valleys) for information processing.

🏆 Key Figures

Andre Geim & Konstantin Novoselov (2004)

Isolated graphene at Manchester using Scotch tape method, Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

Pablo Jarillo-Herrero (2018)

MIT physicist who discovered magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene superconductivity

James Hone (2008)

Columbia researcher who measured graphene's intrinsic strength — the strongest material ever tested

Feng Wang (2014)

UC Berkeley physicist studying optical and electronic properties of van der Waals heterostructures

Andrei Bernevig (2019)

Princeton theorist who predicted topological properties in twisted bilayer graphene

🎓 Learning Resources

Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films [paper]
Nobel Prize-winning graphene isolation paper (Science, 2004)
Unconventional superconductivity in magic-angle graphene [paper]
Discovery of superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene at magic angle (Nature, 2018)
2D Materials Database [article]
Computational database of 2D material properties for researchers
Graphene Flagship [article]
€1B EU initiative advancing 2D material research from lab to market

💬 Message to Learners

Explore the fascinating world of 2D materials. From graphene's record-breaking strength to MoS₂'s tunable electronics, every layer tells a story!