Shaking the topological cocktail of success
Graphene is the miracle material of the future. Consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, the material is extremely stable, flexible, highly conductive and of particular interest for electronic applications. ETH Professor Tilman Esslinger and his group at the Institute for Quantum Electronics investigate artificial graphene; its honeycomb structure consists not of atoms, but rather of light. The researchers align multiple laser beams in such a way that they create standing waves with a hexagonal pattern. This optical lattice is then superimposed on potassium atoms in a vacuum chamber, which are cooled to near absolute zero temperature. Trapped in the hexagonal structure, the potassium atoms behave like the electrons in graphene.