2D vdW Materials: Are They Just About the Dimension?

2D layered materials are the best platform to explore several intriguing physical phenomena emerging from exotic nanoscale interactions and quantum confinement.

Also, the fact that different types of 2D materials (insulating, semiconducting, metallic, superconducting, topological phases, and many more) are available, it becomes much more interesting to explore these systems intelligently and make them useful for applications in spin-based devices, optoelectronics, energy sources, quantum sensing, quantum photonics, etc.

Topological insulators, Twisted bilayer systems, and 2D Magnetic materials are some of the systems I would love to work with (have worked with a few already but at a "basic" level). More importantly, my interest is to employ these materials with photonic cavities and metasurfaces to realize some really "cool" phases or phenomena. For instance, the intriguing interaction between photons and quasi-particles within these material systems (excitons, phonons, and others) will result in a hybrid quasi-particle with both material and light nature. The former will allow it to interact and create non-linearity at a single-photon level (highly required for quantum information processing) and the latter will allow it to travel (basically carry the information). There are many more applications, including quantum sensing by confining and controlling excitonic emissions. There is massive work to synthesize and study novel correlated phases in these systems.

With so many unsolved mysteries in this area, it is highly difficult to analyze its true power. But, just like any previous discovery, it is only after the realization of the technology that we are able to understand its true potential.