🔍 Layered semiconductors are attracting growing interest for quantum technologies  such as photonics, sensing, and spin-based devices. So far, most research has focused on artificially engineered materials . In contrast, natural layered materials  - like talc - have been largely overlooked, even though they offer several important advantages. 🌿 Talc and related silicate materials have a wide, direct bandgap, very few optically active defects, and a low density of nuclear sp

🔬 A new paper in npj Computational Materials  reports a major step forward in accurately modelling colour centres  - atomic-scale defects that are central to many quantum technologies . 👥 Zsolt Benedek, Ádám Ganyecz, Anton Pershin, Viktor Ivady and Gergely Barcza🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41524-025-01813-0 💎 Colour centres in semiconductors such as diamond play a key role in quantum sensing and quantum information. However, describing their electronic states accur