Dr. Trong Toan Tran, an academic in the School of Electrical and Data Engineering (SEDE), has been named one of the recipients of the ARC Discovery Project 2024. The multidisciplinary team led by Prof. Milos Toth from MaPS/Science also includes two other early career researchers, Dr. Mehran Kianinia (MaPS/Science) and Dr. Carla Verdi (UQ). The project has been built upon Dr. Tran’s seminal work on discovering quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride, published in the prestigious Nature Nanotechnology in 2016. It gathered more than 1,200 citations in only seven years after its publication.
Solid state sources of single photons ("quantum emitters") are vital hardware for deploying scalable quantum technologies. Amongst many potential platforms investigated, optically active defects in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are among the front runners because of their brightness and ease of manufacturing. This project will produce a robust hardware toolkit for quantum technologies. It will provide excellent training for young Australians and generate key intellectual property for quantum startups and the quantum industry.