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New multi-core imaging fibre bundles -- hexabundles -- being developed at the University of Sydney will provide simultaneous integral field spectroscopy for hundreds of celestial sources across a wide angular field. These are a natural…
Semiconductor coupled quantum dots provide a unique opportunity of tuning bandgaps by tailoring band offsets, making them ideal for photovoltaic and other applications. Here, we have studied stability, trends in the band gap, band offsets,…
The field of topological mechanics has recently emerged due to the interest in robustly transporting various types of energy in a flaw and defect-insensitive fashion. While there have been a significant number of studies based on…
Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a promising two-dimensional insulator with a large band gap and low density of charged impurities that is isostructural and isoelectronic with graphene. Here we report the chemical and atomic-scale…
Here we report the optical and x-ray absorption (XAS) spectra of the wide-band-gap oxide MgO using density functional theory (DFT) and many-body perturbation theory (MBPT). Our comprehensive study of the electronic structure shows that…
Two dimensional van der Waals crystals and their heterostructures provide an exciting alternative to bulk wide bandgap semiconductors as hosts of single photon emitters. Amongst different layered materials, bright and robust defect-based…
In the past few years materials with protected gapless surface (edge) states have risen to the central stage of condensed matter physics. Almost all discussions centered around topological insulators and superconductors, which possess full…
Boron vacancy centre ($V_{\rm B}^-$) ensembles in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have attracted recent interest for their potential as two-dimensional solid-state quantum sensors. Irradiation is necessary for $V_{\rm B}^-$ creation, however,…
Materials combining both a high refractive index and a wide band gap are of great interest for optoelectronic and sensor applications. However, these two properties are typically described by an inverse correlation with high refractive…
Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has emerged as a compelling platform for both classical and quantum technologies. In particular, the past decade has witnessed a surge of novel ideas and developments, which may be overwhelming for newcomers to…
We use density functional theory to calculate the electronic band structures, cohesive energies, phonon dispersions, and optical absorption spectra of two-dimensional In$_2$X$_2$ crystals, where X is S, Se, or Te. We identify two…
Recent observations of Broad Absorption Line (BAL) quasars demonstrated that the soft X-ray emission of these objects is extremely weak and convincing evidence for very strong absorption by a high column density (~ 10^23.5 cm^-2) was…
The electronic bandstructure of a solid is a collection of allowed bands separated by forbidden bands, revealing the geometric symmetry of the crystal structures. Comprehensive knowledge of the bandstructure with band parameters explains…
Diverse magnetic and electronic properties of halogen-adsorbed silicene are investigated by the first-principles theoretical framework, including the adatom-diversified geometric structures, the atom-dominated energy bands, the spatial spin…
Modern bandgap engineered electronic devices are typically made of multi-semiconductor multi-layer heterostructures that pose a major challenge to silicon-era characterization methods. As a result, contemporary bandgap engineering relies…
Light absorption at the boundary of indirect-band-gap and direct-forbidden gap semiconductors is analyzed. It is found that the possibility of the electron momentum nonconservation at the interface leads to essential enhancement of…
Plasmonics offer an exciting way to mediate the interaction between light and matter, allowing strong field enhancement and confinement, large absorption and scattering at resonance. However, simultaneous realization of ultra-narrow band…
Atomic defects in solid-state materials are building blocks for future quantum technologies, such as quantum communication networks, computers, and sensors. Until recently, a handful of defects in a small selection of host materials have…
X-ray absorption spectroscopy is a well established tool for obtaining information about orbital and spin degrees of freedom in transition metal- and rare earth-compounds. For this purpose usually the dipole transitions of the L- (2p to 3d)…
X-ray polarimetry promises to give qualitatively new information about high-energy sources. Examples of interesting source classes are binary black hole systems, rotation and accretion powered neutron stars, Microquasars, Active Galactic…