Researchers in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have discovered a new type of quantum light emitter in diamonds that could help overcome a number of challenges facing quantum technologies.

The research was led by ECE graduate student Swetapadma Sahoo in Assistant Professor Simeon Bogdanov’s research group, with contributions from undergraduate students Jaden Li and Darwon Kim. The Illinois team also collaborated with researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, UCLA and international partners in France and Russia.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, introduce a newly identified diamond color center, named IL1 after the University of Illinois. The IL1 center emits exceptionally bright, narrowband quantum light consisting of single photons while remaining remarkably insensitive to the crystal vibrations typical in a diamond lattice.