The hexagonal honeycomb pattern is offset slightly, creating a precise moiré configuration that is predicted to induce strange, "strongly correlated interactions" between the electrons in the graphene sheets. In any other stacked configuration, graphene prefers to remain distinct, interacting very little, electronically or otherwise, with its neighboring layers.

The team, led by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, an associate professor of physics at MIT, found that when rotated at the magic angle, the two sheets of graphene exhibit nonconducting behavior, similar to an exotic class of materials known as Mott insulators. When the researchers then applied voltage, adding small amounts of electrons to the graphene superlattice, they found that, at a certain level, the electrons broke out of the initial insulating state and flowed without resistance, as if through a superconductor.

"We can now use graphene as a new platform for investigating unconventional superconductivity," Jarillo-Herrero says. "One can also imagine making a superconducting transistor out of graphene, which you can switch on and off, from superconducting to insulating. That opens many possibilities for quantum devices."