Rice researchers find ‘paradox’ in ground-state bilayers
Mixing and matching computational models of 2D materials led scientists at Rice University to the realization that excitons — quasiparticles that exist when electrons and holes briefly bind — can be manipulated in new and useful ways.
The researchers identified a small set of 2D compounds with similar atomic lattice dimensions that, when placed together, would allow excitons to form spontaneously. Generally, excitons happen when energy from light or electricity boosts electrons and holes into a higher state.
But in a few of the combinations predicted by Rice materials theorist Boris Yakobson and his team, excitons were observed stabilizing at the materials’ ground state. According to their determination, these excitons at their lowest energy state could condense into a superfluid-like phase. The discovery shows promise for electronic, spintronic and quantum computing applications.
The open-access study by Yakobson, graduate student Sunny Gupta and research scientist Alex Kutana, all of Rice’s 怎么加速访问国外网站, appears in 加速国外网页加速软件.
– See more at Rice News

One nanotube could be great for electronics applications, but there’s new evidence that two could be tops.
Step by step, scientists are figuring out new ways to extend Moore’s Law. The latest reveals a path toward integrated circuits with two-dimensional transistors.
bulk quantities of just about any carbon source into valuable graphene flakes. The process is quick and cheap; Tour said the “flash graphene” technique can convert a ton of coal, food waste or plastic into graphene for a fraction of the cost used by other bulk graphene-producing methods.
Boris I. Yakobson, the Karl F. Hasselmann Chair of Engineering, Professor of Materials Science & NanoEngineering and of Chemistry, has been named a Highly Cited Researcher for 2025 in the Materials Science award category.
The Fall 2025 issue of the Rice Engineering Magazine [1] features our recent work on 2D materials for single photon emission (SPE).
When is a circle less stable than a jagged loop? Apparently when you’re talking about carbon nanotubes.
Sunny Gupta, a third-year graduate student in Yakobson’s Group, has been awarded the Nettie S. Autrey Fellowship for 2025–2025. This award is given to one Rice graduate student in either the School of Natural Sciences or the School of Engineering who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and promise, and pays a stipend over the coming academic year.
Jincheng Lei, a fourth-year graduate student in Yakobson’s Group, has received the 2025 Franz and Frances Brotzen Fellowship Award from the MSNE Department. To honor Franz R. Brotzen, the Stanley C. Moore Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and a former dean of engineering, this fellowship was established by David Lee Davidson and his wife, Patricia, and to support an endowed fellowship for graduate students researching in the area of materials science.


July 21–26 2025, Würzburg, Germany
April 15–19, 2025, Fredericksburg, Texas