{"id":21241,"date":"2026-08-19T16:47:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/?post_type=nus-news&p=21241"},"modified":"2026-08-20T08:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:49:01","slug":"faint-far-infrared-light-switches-quantum-material-from-insulator-to-metal","status":"publish","type":"nus-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/news\/faint-far-infrared-light-switches-quantum-material-from-insulator-to-metal\/","title":{"rendered":"Faint Far-Infrared Light Switches Quantum Material from Insulator to Metal"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"\"\r\n
From right to left: Assistant Professor Denis Bandurin, Artur Shilov, Leonid Elesin and Mikhail Kravtsov<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

NUS Materials Science and Engineering Assistant Professor Denis Bandurin and his team \u2014 Leonid Elesin, Artur Shilov, and Mikhail Kravtsov have shown that superconductors are not the only materials whose phase transitions can be harnessed for ultrasensitive light detection. They found that even low-intensity far-infrared radiation can switch magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene from a correlated insulator into a metal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The mechanism is simple but powerful: absorbed radiation heats the electrons while the crystal lattice remains cold. Even a slight rise in electronic temperature is enough to \u201cmelt\u201d the fragile insulating state and restore metallic conduction.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Phase transitions are a central idea in modern physics. We see them in everyday life when water freezes, wax melts, or vapour condenses into droplets. In quantum materials, however, the transformation can occur without any rearrangement of atoms. Instead, electrons collectively reorganise into a new state, and small changes in temperature, magnetic field, or light can dramatically alter the material\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Superconductivity is the best-known example. Near the transition, tiny stimuli can trigger large changes, which is why superconductors are used in some of the world\u2019s most sensitive detectors. The team\u2019s work suggests that magic-angle graphene could offer a new platform for similar sensing, especially in the challenging far-infrared range.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Their findings, published in Nature Communications\u00a0on 10 August 2026, open a new window into fragile quantum phases and point toward a new class of fast, gate-tunable FIR detectors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Read more:\u00a0https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-76389-4<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NUS Materials Science and Engineering Assistant Professor Denis Bandurin and his team \u2014 Leonid Elesin, Artur Shilov, and Mikhail Kravtsov have shown that superconductors are not the only materials whose phase transitions can be harnessed for ultrasensitive light detection. They found that even low-intensity far-infrared radiation can switch magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene from a correlated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":21245,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"news_category":[36],"class_list":["post-21241","nus-news","type-nus-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nus-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21254,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21241\/revisions\/21254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=21241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}