A voltage slides graphene's layers — and switches its magnetism on

Graphene is a sheet of carbon one atom thick. Stack four sheets, apply a voltage, and something elegant happens: the layers slide. Researchers in Kenji Yasuda's lab at Cornell University found that the sliding shifts the stack between two atomic arrangements — one ordinary and non-magnetic, the other rarer and magnetic — and, crucially, the material stays in its new state after the voltage is removed. Lead author Daniel Brandon calls it a reliable memory: the state persists, and can be flipped back and forth consistently. Published in Nature Nanotechnology, the work points toward materials whose properties — magnetism, even superconductivity — could be rewritten on demand, like rewritable quantum memory. 'This provides a fundamentally new way to control matter,' Yasuda said.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation