2024/04/12
RIKEN
University of Tsukuba
The University of Tokyo
Keio University
A joint research group, including Nan Fang, a Special Postdoctoral Researcher (at the time of research, currently a Visiting Researcher) at the Kato Nano-Quantum Photonics Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research; Yuichiro K. Kato, a principal investigator (and Team Leader of the Quantum Optoelectronics Research Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics); Professor Susumu Okada of the Nanostructure Physics Laboratory, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba; Professor Kosuke Nagashio of the Department of Materials Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo; and Assistant Professor Shun Fujii of the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, has discovered the existence of a quantum light source that operates at room temperature at the interface of nano-semiconductors with different dimensionalities (one-dimensional and two-dimensional).
This research achievement is expected to contribute to applications in quantum technologies such as quantum communication and quantum computing.
In this study, the joint research group fabricated a hetero-dimensional heterostructure using one-dimensional semiconductor carbon nanotubes and two-dimensional semiconductor tungsten diselenide, after clarifying the structure of these nanomaterials at the atomic level. Based on the concept of band engineering, they identified a heterostructure where electrons and holes are easily separated. Upon investigating its emission properties, they found interface excitons that exhibit bright quantum emission at room temperature. The fact that interface excitons in a hetero-dimensional heterostructure behave as a quantum light source was unexpected, and it may open a new path for applications in quantum technology as a single-photon source in the telecommunication wavelength band operating at room temperature.
This research was published in the online edition of the scientific journal " Nature Communications " on April 11 (April 11, Japan Standard Time).
For the full press release, please see below.