Exploring Talc as a New Platform for Quantum Technologies

🔍 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 spins, which is ideal for quantum coherence. These properties make talc a promising but underexplored candidate for quantum applications.

🧪 In their new study published in npj 2D Materials and Applications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41699-025-00615-8.epdf?sharing_token=9A8O5d4hhU_6zG-BzPhJ9NRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0N9eY446yQ-fuTsXeLvxzzPMSkOVzp6pk3sK_O1HD9f2vkgVumQkUMYJYsxwV9VHad0JdgBqcQjRwM5go2_8ICPkVvWJ671-pDMmU5VRTnfz3NwWgs1JeIDcn04RMlkWIU%3D), Gellért Dolecsek, Oscar Bulancea Lindvall, Joel Davidsson and Viktor Ivaldy used advanced computer simulations to systematically analyse pristine (defect-free) talc layers and talc layers containing defects and impurities, such as vacancies and different types of atoms. They examined key properties including electronic structure, charge states, spin behaviour, and optical responses, both in bulk talc and in quasi-2D layers.

🧠 Their results provide a foundation for identifying:

·        colour centres (important for quantum light sources)

·        electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) centres

·        possible spin-based quantum bits (qubits)

·        p-type and n-type dopants for electronic control

🚀 This work significantly advances the theoretical understanding of talc and highlights its potential as a natural, scalable material platform for future quantum technologies.

#QRC4ESP #QuantumMaterials #QuantumTechnology #SpinQubits#Photonics #QuantumSensing #2DMaterials#Semiconductors #npj #QuantumResearch