Associate Professor Igor Aharonovich and Professor Milos Toth, photonics researchers at University of Technology Sydney, in collaboration with scientists at MIT, have discovered some of the brightest quantum emitters ever recorded – in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a honeycomb structure that mimics graphene. Instead of carbon atoms, however, it is an alternating array of boron and nitrogen atoms.

Researchers have taken a huge step closer to the engineering of nanoscale devices to aid the delivery of life-saving drug treatments. Research co-leader Professor Dayong Jin at UTS said such minute devices have the potential to be engineered to efficiently and more safely deliver drug treatments directly to the location of diseased cells while helping avoid harm to healthy cells that fall victim to toxic drugs administered by conventional means.