{"id":643432,"date":"2025-03-15T15:02:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T19:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=643432"},"modified":"2025-03-17T08:15:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T12:15:38","slug":"twisting-atomically-thin-materials-quantum-technology-643432","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/twisting-atomically-thin-materials-quantum-technology-643432\/","title":{"rendered":"Twisting atomically thin materials could advance quantum computers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Placing two layers of special 2D materials together and turning them at large angles creates artificial atoms with intriguing optical properties.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By taking two flakes of special materials that are just one atom thick and twisting them at high angles, researchers at the University of Rochester<\/a> have unlocked unique optical properties that could be used in quantum computers and other quantum technologies. In a new study published in Nano Letters<\/em><\/a>, the researchers show that precisely layering nano-thin materials creates excitons\u2014essentially, artificial atoms\u2014that can act as quantum information bits, or qubits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had just a single layer of this material we\u2019re using, these dark excitons wouldn\u2019t interact with light,\u201d says Nickolas Vamivakas<\/a>, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics. \u201cBy doing the big twist, it turns on artificial atoms within the material that we can control optically, but they are still protected from the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moir\u00e9 is less<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The work builds on the 2010 Nobel Prize\u2013winning discovery<\/a> that peeling carbon apart until it reaches a single layer of atoms creates a new two-dimensional (2D) material called graphene with special quantum characteristics.<\/p>\n

Scientists have since explored how optical and electrical properties of graphene and other 2D materials change when layered on top of one another and twisted at very small angles\u2014called moir\u00e9 superlattices. For example, when graphene is twisted at the \u201cmagic\u201d angle of 1.1 degrees, it creates special patterns that produce properties such as superconductivity.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up
Vamivakas and his fellow researchers place monolayer materials in chips that are cooled through a cryostat to observe their unique optical properties. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But scientists from Rochester\u2019s Institute of Optics<\/a> and Department of Physics and Astronomy<\/a> took a different approach. They used molybdenum diselenide, a 2D material that is more fickle than graphene, and twisted it at much higher angles of up to 40 degrees. Still, the researchers found the twisted monolayers produced excitons that were able to retain information when activated by light.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was very surprising for us,\u201d says Arnab Barman Ray, an optics PhD<\/a> candidate. \u201cMolybdenum diselenide is notorious because other materials in the family of moir\u00e9 materials show better information-retaining capacity. We think that if we use some of those other materials at these large angles, they will probably work even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team views this as an important early step toward new types of quantum devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cDown the line, we hope these artificial atoms can be used like memory or nodes in a quantum network, or put into optical cavities to create quantum materials,\u201d says Vamivakas. \u201cThese could be the backbone for devices like the next generation of lasers or even tools to simulate quantum physics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research was supported through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and conducted at the URnano facilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Placing two layers of special 2D materials together and turning them at large angles creates artificial atoms with intriguing optical properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1242,"featured_media":643472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[18662,18632,18652,22002,17762,18572,16072,37822],"class_list":["post-643432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-department-of-physics-and-astronomy","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-institute-of-optics","tag-nick-vamivakas","tag-quantum-science","tag-research-finding","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-urnano"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwisting atomically thin materials could advance quantum computers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Placing two layers of special 2D materials together and 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