photon emission observed in two

Scientists at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw in Poland have observed single-photon emission from a layered two-dimensional material, ZnPS3. This work, which demonstrates a crucial step toward the use of low-dimensional materials in quantum information sciences, also involved researchers from the National University of Singapore and Radboud University in the Netherlands. Quantum computing is regarded as the next frontier of computing. Currently in development, when quantum computers become available commercially at scale, they will leave even the fastest supercomputers of today look like old-age calculators. Multiple experiments have shown that quantum computers can complete computations in seconds that supercomputers would take decades to complete. This is possible due to the underlying technology. Instead of using binary bits, quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits, which can store multiple values between 0 and 1 in them. When computing, they can utilize these values and carry out computations in parallel, making them exponentially faster than classical computers that use binary bits. In search of quantum materialsThe potential of quantum computing has sent startups and universities alike in search of materials that could be used as qubits. Most of the approaches so far require materials to be cooled down to temperatures near absolute zero to be able to spot and manipulate quantum states. While this works for research settings, if quantum computing has to indeed be scaled, it needs to be accessible at room temperature. Color centers in diamonds have been widely explored for be in quantum systems and have shown promising results. However, the emergence of a new class of materials, two-dimensional van der Waals layered crystals, has exposed the shortcomings of diamonds. 2D crystals can be easily transferred and placed on any substrate, allowing for seamless integration into miniature circuits, silicon chips, and even optical fibers. The major advantage of this versatility is that it enables the design of multicomponent circuits on a single chip, paving the way for integrated quantum processors. What Polish researchers foundResearchers from Warsaw University investigated thin flakes of zinc phosphorus trisulfide (ZnPS3), where the thickness of the material was in nanometers. The material has a wide bandgap of 3.63 eV. A material with such a wide bandgap requires large amount of energy to free its electrons. This allows them to operate at higher voltages and temperatures while enabling processors to run at higher frequencies without significant energy loss. Materials with higher bandgaps require smaller cooling systems and can be shrunken further than silicon-based hardware. When the researchers excited the material with a laser, the point defect in its crystal lattice structure generated a stream of photons. The photons were highly polarized, which is a useful property when working on approaches like quantum cryptography. A major part of their work, however, involved determining the microscopic mechanism that allowed the emission of single photons. The researchers’ hypothesis is that single phosphorus atom vacancies are the source of the emission.The research findings were published in the journal ACS Nano.