white graphene tagged posts

Scientists drill into White Graphene to Create Artificial Atoms

Laser light (green arrow) generates low-level light emitted from a single photon (purple arrow) at the edges of holes in white graphene atop a glass slide.
Credit: Illustration by Joshua Ziegler

Patterned on a microchip and working in ambient conditions, the atoms could lead to rapid advancements in new quantum-based technology. By drilling holes into a thin two-dimensional sheet of hexagonal boron nitride with a gallium-focused ion beam, University of Oregon scientists have created artificial atoms that generate single photons.

The artificial atoms – which work in air and at room temperature – may be a big step in efforts to develop all-optical quantum computing, said UO physicist Benjamín J. Alemán, principal investigator of a study published in the journal Nano Letters.

“Ou...

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Fluorine Grants White Graphene New Powers

A density functional theory calculation showed the magnetic properties of a fluorinated sample of hexagonal boron nitride. This version is ferromagnetic, determined by how the fluorine atoms (red) attach to the boron and nitrogen matrix. Credit: Ajayan Group/Rice University

A density functional theory calculation showed the magnetic properties of a fluorinated sample of hexagonal boron nitride. This version is ferromagnetic, determined by how the fluorine atoms (red) attach to the boron and nitrogen matrix.
Credit: Ajayan Group/Rice University

Researchers turn common insulator, 2D hexagonal boron nitride, h-BN (white graphene) into a magnetic semiconductor. A little fluorine turns an insulating ceramic known as white graphene into a wide-bandgap semiconductor with magnetic properties. Rice University scientists said that could make the unique material suitable for electronics in extreme environments...

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