Every so often, science uncovers a new class of materials that changes everything. In the early 20th century, semiconductors gave us the transistor and the digital age. In the 1980s, quasicrystals rewrote the rules of atomic order. Now, researchers at Rutgers University believe they have unlocked the next revolution in materials science: intercrystals. These exotic new structures don’t just bend the rules of physics; they exploit geometry itself to command the behavior of electrons. If semiconductors gave us the information age, intercrystals could give us the geometry age.
Intercrystals are created by stacking two ultra-thin sheets of graphene—each only one atom thick—on a substrate of hexagonal boron nitride, then twisting them at just the right angle. That tiny geometric contortion produces moiré patterns, rippling effects similar to what you see when two mesh screens overlap. At this microscopic scale, those ripples aren’t just visual artifacts; they reshape the quantum landscape through which electrons travel. A slight twist, a minor shift in alignment, and suddenly electrons behave in ways no conventional crystal could ever allow. The Rutgers team has shown that intercrystals possess electronic properties never before observed, a finding that doesn’t just open a door—it demolishes a wall.
This breakthrough builds on the emerging field of “twistronics,” where atomic layers are tilted or rotated to induce radical new properties. Twistronics has already hinted at superconductivity and magnetism emerging from ordinary carbon sheets when stacked at “magic angles.” But intercrystals take the concept further, proving that geometry itself can serve as a design tool more powerful than chemistry. Instead of searching for rare materials or exotic compounds, scientists can now sculpt behavior by twisting what we already have. Imagine a future where circuits aren’t limited by the elements on the periodic table, but by the ingenuity of design.
The implications are enormous. Electronics have always relied on chemistry—adding impurities to silicon, alloying metals, or mixing complex oxides—to achieve new effects. Intercrystals break that paradigm. They allow engineers to build circuits where every transistor, every sensor, every pathway for information is controlled not by doping chemicals but by the angle of atomic sheets. That means more efficient electronics, quantum-ready devices, and sensors with precision unimaginable in today’s materials. It also suggests a pathway to superconductivity, where electricity flows forever without resistance, enabling a new generation of ultra-low-power technologies.
Intercrystals also mark a new chapter in the quest for sustainable design. While rare earths and exotic minerals fuel today’s electronic devices, intercrystals are made of abundant, non-toxic elements—carbon, boron, nitrogen. If these materials scale, they offer a way to build next-generation electronics without the geopolitical and environmental costs of mining rare elements. That shift alone could reorder entire supply chains. Nations that control lithium or cobalt deposits may find themselves overtaken by labs that control geometry.
Even more provocative is the idea that intercrystals represent not just a new material, but a new phase of matter. They share traits with quasicrystals, which shattered scientific orthodoxy when discovered in 1982, but intercrystals go further. They blend the symmetry of crystals with the unpredictability of quasicrystals, occupying a strange middle ground that didn’t exist before. In other words, Rutgers scientists may not have merely found a new material—they may have invented a new category of existence. That raises a profound question: how many other “phases” are still hidden, waiting for us to manipulate matter with new forms of frustration, symmetry, and geometry?
From a futurist perspective, the discovery of intercrystals is more than a laboratory triumph. It’s a signal of where science is headed. We are entering an era where physical reality is less a fixed landscape to explore and more a malleable playground to design. We will no longer be bound by the slow march of natural discovery, waiting for the Earth to gift us a new element or mineral. Instead, we will architect new matter itself—phases of existence built on demand. Intercrystals are just the beginning. They hint at a future where geometry becomes the lever through which we design quantum computers, atomic-scale circuits, or even forms of matter with properties so strange they defy current imagination.
Like the transistor in 1947 or the laser in 1960, intercrystals may look like a scientific curiosity today. But history has a habit of transforming curiosities into revolutions. The transistor gave us the microchip, which gave us the internet, which gave us the digital civilization we now inhabit. Intercrystals could be the transistor of the 21st century—a geometric trick that evolves into a foundational technology. The question is not whether they will change our world, but how fast and how far.
The future is geometric. And the geometry of intercrystals may very well be the blueprint of the next civilization.
Read more on related breakthroughs:
- Physicists use ‘twistronics’ to unlock new material properties
- Discovery of moiré materials opens door to quantum advances
