Jennifer Dionne, a materials scientist at Stanford University, is leading a team developing a nanoscale optical device that can entangle light and electrons at room temperature. The group’s recent work adds to a line of studies attempting to move quantum communication and computation out of highly specialized laboratory environments and into conditions that are far more practical for engineering applications.
Pan, F., Li, X., Johnson, A. C., Dhuey, S., Saunders, A., Hu, M.-X., Dixon, J. P., Dagli, S., Lau, S.-C., Weng, T., Chen, C.-Y., Zeng, J.-H., Apte, R., Heinz, T. F., Liu, F., Deng, Z.-L., & Dionne, J. A. (2025). Room-temperature valley-selective emission in Si-MoSe2 heterostructures enabled by high-quality-factor chiroptical cavities. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66502-4
Current quantum systems depend on extreme cooling to maintain coherence, usually approaching absolute zero. These conditions help stabilize fragile quantum states but come with significant cost and infrastructure demands. Dionne’s team aims to avoid this cooling requirement altogether. Their device uses a thin layer of molybdenum diselenide placed on top of a silicon substrate patterned with nanoscale features. When light interacts with this structure, the silicon patterns shape the photons into what the researchers call twisted light. These spiraling photons can pass their spin to electrons within the two-dimensional molybdenum diselenide layer, allowing the system to generate qubits without cryogenic support.
This approach builds on emerging research in chiral metasurfaces and transition-metal dichalcogenides. Earlier efforts with similar materials struggled because electrons tended to lose their spin information almost immediately at room temperature. The Stanford device strengthens the interaction between light and matter by confining light in resonant modes that promote stable spin transfer. Measurements of circular polarization and emission lifetimes indicate that the device maintains its quantum characteristics long enough to be useful, with enhanced radiative rates that point to more efficient coupling than previously achieved.
Jennifer Dionne, a materials scientist at Stanford University stated,
“The patterned nanostructures are imperceptible to the human eye, about the size of the wavelength of visible light. But they help us manipulate photons very precisely to make them spin, to twist them, in a specific direction, for example, up or down.”
Researchers in related studies have been moving in similar directions, exploring how carefully engineered nanostructures can maintain polarized or valley-selective emission at ambient temperatures. Some have demonstrated strong coupling effects and rapid emission dynamics in mixed-dimensional or two-dimensional materials, but Dionne’s work is notable for pairing these concepts with a silicon platform. This choice aligns quantum photonics more closely with the fabrication techniques already common in semiconductor manufacturing, a shift that many in the field see as essential for scaling the technology.
The implications extend beyond basic research. If quantum states can be reliably generated and maintained without cooling systems, the engineering barriers that have kept quantum devices large and costly begin to ease. Smaller, cheaper components could find their way into communication hardware, sensing systems, or specialized processors. There is also growing interest in valleytronics, where the engineered properties of two-dimensional materials could support new types of information encoding parallel to quantum applications.
Challenges remain. A single device demonstrating room-temperature spin coupling is an important step, but building full quantum networks requires integrated light sources, modulators, detectors, and stable interconnects. The fabrication uniformity needed for mass production has not yet been achieved, and the performance of these structures under varied environmental and electrical conditions must still be proven. Engineers will have to determine how to incorporate these nanoscale elements into larger optical and computational systems while maintaining coherence and efficiency.
Even with these hurdles, researchers view the result as an encouraging sign. The progress suggests that quantum behavior may not always require the heavy infrastructure that has defined the field since its earliest experiments. If devices like Dionne’s can be refined and integrated into more complex architectures, quantum communication and computation might eventually operate on platforms far smaller and more accessible than today’s laboratory setups. Some speculate that such components could one day appear in everyday electronics, though Dionne’s team is careful to frame that possibility as a long-term vision rather than an imminent development.
For now, the achievement represents a shift in how engineers think about quantum systems. Rather than treating room temperature as an obstacle, designers are beginning to leverage materials and optical structures that work with ambient conditions instead of fighting them. The Stanford team’s device shows that with the right combination of two-dimensional materials and precisely shaped light, room-temperature quantum signaling is no longer theoretical but a practical area of active engineering.
Adrian graduated with a Masters Degree (1st Class Honours) in Chemical Engineering from Chester University along with Harris. His master’s research aimed to develop a standardadised clean water oxygenation transfer procedure to test bubble diffusers that are currently used in the wastewater industry commercial market. He has also undergone placments in both US and China primarely focused within the R&D department and is an associate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE).
