Tiny bubbles make a quantum leap

Researchers at Columbia Engineering and Montana State University have found that placing sufficient strain in a two-dimensional material – tungsten diselenide – creates localized states that can yield single-photon emitters. Using sophisticated optical microscopy techniques, the team was able to directly image these states for the first time, revealing that even at room temperature, they are highly tunable and act as quantum dots – tightly confined pieces of semiconductors that emit light.