Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discovered that neutrons can "stick" to quantum dots. This opens the way to creating new types of quantum devices for information storage and processing.
Quantum dots — these tiny crystals that consist of tens of thousands of atoms. The ability of a neutron to stick to such a point amazes scientists, because neutrons are traditionally not affected by the electromagnetic force.
Professors Zhu Li and Paola Cappellaro, who conducted the research, believe that this discovery may contribute to the development of new tools for study of the fundamental properties of materials and the creation of completely new devices for quantum information processing.
The discovery also has the potential to create "neutron quantum dots" or "neutron molecules", which can become a new tool for studying the inner workings of materials and open new horizons in quantum information processing.