Previous attempts at trapping them in 2D had failed.
Successful electron trapping in 3D
The MIT team looked for materials that could be used to work out 3D lattices in kagome patterns and came across pyrochlore — a mineral with highly symmetric atomic arrangements. In 3D, pyrochlore’s atoms formed a repeating pattern consisting of cubes in a kagome-like lattice.
To test their hypothesis, the team synthesized the pyrochlore using calcium and nickel. After heating the ingredients to very high temperatures, the mix was cooled, and the atoms arranged themselves into a kagome-like structure.
Comments are closed.