Single-atom vacancies in atomically thin insulators created in ultra-high vacuum

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-single-atom-vacancies-atomically-thin-insulators.html

"aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy... damage slower at low energies... Single boron and nitrogen vacancies created at intermediate electron energies, boron 2X likely ejected due to lower mass... nitrogen easier to eject, allowing preferential creation... combines ionization knock-on damage allows extrapolate higher energies defect creation... monolayer hexagonal boron nitride stable under electron irradiation, chemical etching prevented... quantum computation, information networks, and sensors"

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Thanks to trapped electrons, a material expected to be a conducting metal remains an insulator

https://phys.org/news/2023-07-electrons-material-metal-insulator.html

Characterizing atomic defects in 2D materials to determine suitability as quantum emitters

https://phys.org/news/2023-07-characterizing-atomic-defects-2d-materials.html