University of Texas at Dallas physicists and their collaborators at Yale University have demonstrated an atomically thin, intelligent quantum sensor that can simultaneously detect all the fundamental properties of an incoming light wave. The device exploits the unique physical properties of a novel family of two-dimensional materials called moiré metamaterials. The resulting moiré metamaterial yields electronic properties that differ significantly from those exhibited by a single layer alone or by two naturally aligned layers. “The moiré metamaterial exhibits what’s called a bulk photovoltaic effect, which is unusual,” said Patrick Cheung, a physics doctoral student at UT Dallas and co-lead author of the study. But here, there is no bias at all; we simply shine a light on the moiré metamaterial, and the light generates a current via this bulk photovoltaic effect.