Steven Poche is an undergraduate student working with Dr. Amet who has just received an Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA). When asked to elaborate on his work in Dr. Amet's lab, Steven said he "creates devices using graphene, a material with a carbon lattice one atom thick, which restricts electrons to behave as though they were in only two dimensions. Graphene becomes superconducting when placed within close proximity to another superconductor, and so we stack layers of graphene with niobium diselenide, a superconducting crystal with a lattice that is also one atom thick. Much of the difficulty that arises in creating these devices, however, is the degradation of niobium diselenide in air. In order to avoid this degradation, these crystals need to be handled within an environment devoid of oxygen, such as a glove box, where we can fabricate these crystals and stack them together in an optimal environment. Much of our work is in collaboration with Duke, and our goal is to look at the electronic properties of these devices when cooled to very low temperatures." Poche is grateful to both Appalachian State University and Duke University for their collaboration on this research and for providing this opportunity. Steven plans to one day obtain a PhD in experimental condensed matter physics and further his academic career using the tools he is learning in Dr. Amet's lab.
