Scientists capture the fleeting dance of moiré excitons

Published in the journal Nature, scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), and Stanford University have, in a world-first, imaged and measured the two parts of a unique particle called a moiré exciton. Excitons have the potential to revolutionize technological and quantum devices, but they are usually fleeting in nature, often lasting no longer than a few thousandths of a billionth of a second, which makes them incredibly difficult to study. Moiré excitons tend to be longer-lived and are thus an attractive way to study the particle and its potential applications. Yet information about their size, shape, and behavior remains unclear.