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 have unlocked unique optical properties that could be used in quantum computers and other quantum technologies.
In a new study published in Nano Letters, the researchers show that precisely layering nano-thin materials creates excitons—essentially, artificial atoms—that can act as quantum information bits, or qubits.
"If we had just a single layer of this material we're using, these dark excitons wouldn't interact with light," says Nickolas Vamivakas, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics. "By 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."
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