Light Does the Twist for Quantum Computing
The discoveries, by Nagoya College researchers and colleagues in Japan and released in the journal Advanced Materials, allude to the development of materials and device methods used in optical quantum computing data processing.
Photons are light particles with fascinating properties that can be explored for the storage and transportation of data and reveal tremendous promise for quantum computing.
Information can be inscribed towards an electron’s spin, as it is saved in the form of 0 and 1 in the ‘bits’ of computers. These electrons produce twisting ‘chiral’ ‘valley-polarized light’ when they interact with specific light-emitting materials, showing the potential for large data storage.
However, scientists only generated this kind of circularly polarized light using magnets and very cool temperature levels, making the technique inappropriate for long-term use.
Nagoya University applied physicists Taishi Takenobu and Jiang Pu led a group of researchers to create a room-temperature, electrically controlled approach for generating this chiral valley-polarized light.
Electrodes were positioned on either end of the device, and a small voltage was applied. This produced an electric field and also eventually created light. The team discovered that chiral light was observed between -193 °C and room temperature from the sections of the device where the sapphire substrate was normally stressed due to the synthetic process. However, it can be produced from strain-free locations at much lower temperatures. The researchers concluded that strain played a vital role in producing room temperature valley-polarized light.
They then produced a bending phase on which they set a tungsten disulfide gadget on a plastic substrate. They utilized the bending stage to apply strain to their material, driving an electric current in the same direction of the strain and yielding valley-polarized light at room temperature level. Applying an electrical field to the material changed the chiral light from traveling in one direction to another.
According to Takenobu, their use of strained monolayer semiconductors is the first presentation of a light-emitting device that can electrically produce and shift right- and left-handed circularly polarized light at room temperature.
The group will further enhance their device to develop practical chiral light source.
Originally published on Sciencedaily.com. Read the original article.
Reference: Jiang Pu, Wenjin Zhang, Hirofumi Matsuoka, Yu Kobayashi, Yuhei Takaguchi, Yasumitsu Miyata, Kazunari Matsuda, Yuhei Miyauchi, Taishi Takenobu. Room‐Temperature Chiral Light‐Emitting Diode Based on Strained Monolayer Semiconductors. Advanced Materials, 2021; 33 (36): 2100601 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202100601
