Simon’s research is focused on Solid State Physics, which is the study of what electrons and atoms do inside solid matter and their highly irregular behavior, such as the emergence of internal electrical polarization in multilayer graphene (a 2D material). This is surprising because it was found that electrons regroup at a specific position in the crystal despite repelling one another electrically. 

Simon’s team took layered materials, that stack as a pile of papers, and studied how their properties change as we slide some of the layers to new metastable positions. These works lay the groundwork for a new kind of electric component that can be called “slide-tronics”. Currently, he is focused on creating materials that influence electrons so that they behave like fluids rather than the normal behavior observed in conventional materials.

Recent publications:

Salleh Atri, S. et al. Spontaneous Electric Polarization in Graphene Polytypes. Advanced Physics Research 3, 2300095 (2024).

Vizner Stern, M., Salleh Atri, S. & Ben Shalom, M. Sliding van der Waals polytypes. Nature Reviews Physics 2024 7:1 7, 50–61 (2024).