‘Nanodot’ control could fine-tune light for sharper displays and quantum computing

Researchers from Penn State, the University of North Texas, the University of Pennsylvania, Université Paris-Saclay in France, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have shown that the light emitted from two-dimensional (2D) materials can be modulated by embedding a second 2D material, called a nanodot, inside them. The researchers showed that by controlling the nanodot size, they could change the color and frequency of the emitted light. The control came from adjusting the band gaps of the materials – essentially the energy threshold electrons must cross to make a material emit light.