2D Materials Unlock Quantum Simulation, Harnessing Unique Phenomena for Next-Generation Devices
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Two-dimensional materials are rapidly becoming essential for developing next-generation quantum technologies, offering unprecedented control over materials at the atomic scale. Qimin Yan, Tongcang Li, and Xingyu Gao, along with their colleagues, present a comprehensive overview of how these materials are advancing fields such as computation, communication, and simulation. Their work highlights the unique properties of 2D materials, including their ability to host addressable spin defects and tunable single-photon emitters, and charts a course for overcoming key challenges in defect control and scalable integration. By connecting fundamental material properties to complex device architectures, this research positions 2D materials as foundational building blocks for realising the full potential of quantum technologies. 2D Materials for Single Photon Sources This research explores the potential of two-dimensional (2D) materials, including hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and transition metal dichalcogenides like tungsten diselenide (WSe2) and molybdenum telluride (MoTe2), as sources of single photons for secure quantum communication and other quantum technologies. These materials can host quantum emitters, defects within the material that emit individual photons, crucial for applications like quantum key distribution. Scientists are striving to create deterministic sources, reliably producing photons on demand. Hexagonal boron nitride is particularly promising due to its bright and stable single photon emission, with research focused on controlling the wavelength and reproducibility of these emitters. Recent advances demonstrate the ability to create emitters in specific locations with consistent wavelengths, and efforts are underway to tune emissions to wavelengths compatible with existing telecommunications fiber networks. Integrating emitters with structures that enhance light collection and directionality is also a key focus. Coupling these 2D material emitters to optical cavities, such as Bragg gratings, significantly boosts emission rate and collection efficiency through the Purcell effect. Integrating emitters with waveguides allows for efficient guiding and manipulation of emitted photons, essential for building complex quantum circuits. Quantum key distribution demonstrations using 2D material emitters have surpassed the rate limits of traditional methods, and initial studies suggest that 2D materials may be suitable for space-based quantum communication due to their radiation tolerance. Creating highly reproducible and deterministic single photon sources remains a key challenge. Precisely controlling emission wavelength to match those used in telecommunications is crucial for long-distance communication. Improving emitter efficiency and brightness is essential for practical applications, and developing methods for fabricating large arrays of identical, high-performance emitters is needed for complex quantum systems.
Isotope Engineering Boosts Quantum Sensor Coherence Researchers are developing new quantum sensing technologies using two-dimensional materials, specifically focusing on harnessing spin defects within hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and exploring alternative host materials. To enhance the coherence of electron spins, the team combined isotope engineering, utilizing enriched boron-10 and nitrogen-15 hBN, with dynamical decoupling techniques, achieving improved sensing sensitivity and higher-fidelity control of electron-spin transitions. This isotope purification process resolves hyperfine structures, enabling optimization of dynamical decoupling sequences designed to suppress errors. The study demonstrates that nuclear spins associated with defects, such as those surrounding boron vacancies in hBN, possess longer coherence times than electron spins and can serve as valuable quantum resources for advanced control and memory capabilities. Scientists also investigated carbon-related defects created through controlled carbon-13 implantation, revealing exceptionally strong electron-nuclear coupling, reaching up to 300MHz, and enabling coherent control of single nuclear spins with coherence times exceeding one hundred microseconds at room temperature. To expand application potential, researchers incorporated spin defects into boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), leveraging their quasi-one-dimensional geometry and orientation-independent spin response for omnidirectional magnetic field detection, advantageous for scanning probe techniques. Beyond hBN, the study explores layered germanium disulfide (GeS2) as a promising host material, experimentally observing spin-1/2 defects in GeS2, which exhibits fewer nuclear spins than hBN, suggesting potential for further coherence improvements with optimized samples.
The team employs a combination of computational modeling and experimental validation to identify and characterize spin-active defects, paving the way for next-generation quantum sensors with enhanced performance and broadened capabilities. This work demonstrates the potential of tailoring material composition to enhance quantum properties and improve sensor performance.
Room Temperature Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride Two-dimensional materials are becoming crucial components for next-generation quantum technologies, offering unprecedented control at the atomic scale and seamless integration into complex devices. Researchers have demonstrated the ability to host spin defects within atomically thin platforms like hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), enabling quantum sensors to be positioned just angstroms from the target and dramatically boosting sensitivity. In 2020, a team successfully detected optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) of spin defects in hBN at room temperature, identifying the negatively charged boron vacancy (VB−) which possesses a spin-1 ground state with a zero-field splitting of 3.47GHz. This discovery represents a significant milestone, establishing the first 2D analog to the well-studied diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. These 2D materials also contribute directly to scalable, multifunctional quantum hardware, with materials like niobium diselenide (NbSe2), tantalum disulfide (TaS2), and molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) forming clean Josephson junctions and gate-tunable weak links. Furthermore, hBN and other 2D insulators provide low-loss dielectrics for transmon and fluxonium qubits, reducing decoherence relative to amorphous oxides due to their crystalline uniformity and sharp interfaces. Graphene’s small heat capacity and weak electron-phonon coupling enable broadband single-photon detection and microwave-to-optical transduction, linking disparate quantum subsystems. Moiré superlattices, formed by twisting or lattice-mismatching adjacent 2D layers, provide a powerful platform for simulating correlated and topological quantum phases. These systems exhibit flat electronic bands in twisted bilayer graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterostructures, enhancing electron-electron interactions and producing Mott insulators, superconductors, and Chern states tunable by electrostatic gating or pressure. Recent progress in quantum communication using 2D materials demonstrates the growing breadth of quantum functionalities achievable in atomically thin systems, with single-photon emitters in hBN and strain-localized excitons in tungsten diselenide (WSe2) enabling the first demonstrations of quantum key distribution achieving competitive key rates and low error ratios. 👉 More information 🗞 Roadmap: 2D Materials for Quantum Technologies 🧠 ArXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14973 Tags: