Researchers Develop On-Chip Quantum Emitter with Previously Unattainable Spatial Resolution & Efficiency

(SpectrumIEEE) Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have developed an on-chip quantum emitter capable of emitting one photon of light at a time with a previously unattainable spatial resolution and efficiency. This advance could prove key to the development of unbreakable cryptography and quantum computers.
For the past decade, quantum dots have been the de facto approach for creating on-chip quantum emitters. However, a professor at Stevens and one of the scientists behind that research from over a decade ago was never quite satisfied with how you couldn’t control where the quantum dots would emit their one photon of light. Stefan Strauf, coauthor of this most recent research, looked for something other than quantum dots to serve as a material for an on-chip quantum emitter. Because of these limitations of quantum dots, Strauf and his colleagues abandoned them altogether and took a different approach for quantum emission: two-dimensional tungsten diselenide stretched over an array of gold nanocubes.