On the quantum dot

There is always room for further innovation in any field and I recently highlight new work in the area of Quantum Dots – those tiny entities hoping to revolutionise computing, analysis and medical diagnostics. Robert Meulenberg, University of Maine, USA, and chemist Geoffrey Strouse, Florida State University (FSU), Tallahassee, USA and colleagues have for the first time generated and observed a tiny magnet, a magnetic spinel inclusion, trapped within a quantum dot made from chromium-laced zinc selenide.

The news item garnered a lot of interest, so I’ve spoken to the researchers, some independent observers and expanded the snippet to this month’s Research Highlight: On the Dot.

Research Blogging IconZheng, W., Singh, K., Wang, Z., Wright, J., van Tol, J., Dalal, N., Meulenberg, R., & Strouse, G. (2012). Evidence of a ZnCrSe Spinel Inclusion at the Core of a Cr-Doped ZnSe Quantum Dot Journal of the American Chemical Society, 134 (12), 5577-5585 DOI: 10.1021/ja210285p