Tunable and high-purity room temperature single-photon emission from atomic defects in hexagonal boron nitride

Abstract

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials have emerged as promising platforms for solid-state quantum information processing devices with unusual potential for heterogeneous assembly. Recently, bright and photostable single photon emitters were reported from atomic defects in layered hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), but controlling inhomogeneous spectral distribution and reducing multi-photon emission presented open challenges. Here, we demonstrate that strain control allows spectral tunability of hBN single photon emitters over 6 meV, and material processing sharply improves the single photon purity. We observe high single photon count rates exceeding 7 × 10 6 counts per second at saturation, after correcting for uncorrelated photon background. Furthermore, these emitters are stable to material transfer to other substrates. High-purity and photostable single photon emission at room temperature, together with spectral tunability and transferability, opens the door to scalable integration of high-quality quantum emitters in photonic quantum technologies.

Full text

Its licence does not allow us to show the full text. Read it at PubMed Central:

References 43

1. 1.

   Geim AK, Grigorieva IV. Van der Waals heterostructures. Nature. 2013;499:419-425.

   Not in our library10.1038/nature12385

2. 2.

   Mak KF, Jie S. Photonics and optoelectronics of 2D semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides. Nat. Photonics. 2016;10:216-226.

   Not in our library10.1038/nphoton.2015.282

3. 3.

   Gullans M, Chang DE, Koppens FHL, García de Abajo FJ, Lukin MD. Single photon nonlinear optics with graphene plasmons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2013;111:247401.

   Not in our library10.1103/physrevlett.111.247401

4. 4.

   Aharonovich I, Englund D, Toth M. Solid-state single-photon emitters. Nat. Photonics. 2016;10:631-641.

   Not in our library10.1038/nphoton.2016.186

5. 5.
   Atomically thin quantum light-emitting diodes · 2016

   No notice
6. 6.

   Srivastava A, et al. Optically active quantum dots in monolayer WSe2. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015;10:491-496.

   Not in our library10.1038/nnano.2015.60

7. 7.

   He Y-M, et al. Single quantum emitters in monolayer semiconductors. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015;10:497-502.

   Not in our library10.1038/nnano.2015.75

8. 8.

   Chakraborty C, Kinnischtzke L, Goodfellow KM, Beams R, Vamivakas N. A. Voltage-controlled quantum light from an atomically thin semiconductor. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015;10:507-511.

   Not in our library10.1038/nnano.2015.79

9. 9.

   Koperski M, et al. Single photon emitters in exfoliated WSe2 structures. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015;10:503-506.

   Not in our library10.1038/nnano.2015.67

10. 10.

    Tonndorf P, et al. Single-photon emission from localized excitons in an atomically thin semiconductor. Optica. 2015;2:347.

    Not in our library10.1364/optica.2.000347

11. 11.

    Bourrellier R, et al. Bright UV single photon emission at point defects in h -BN. Nano Lett. 2016;16:4317-4321.

    Not in our library10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b01368

12. 12.

    Martínez LJ, et al. Efficient single photon emission from a high-purity hexagonal boron nitride crystal. Phys. Rev. B Condens. Matter Mater. Phys. 2016;94:121405(R).

    Not in our library10.1103/physrevb.94.121405

13. 13.

    Tran TT, Bray K, Ford MJ, Toth M, Aharonovich I. Quantum emission from hexagonal boron nitride monolayers. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2016;11:37-41.

    Not in our library10.1038/nnano.2015.242

14. 14.

    Chejanovsky N, et al. Structural attributes and photodynamics of visible spectrum quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride. Nano Lett. 2016;16:7037-7045.

    Not in our library10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03268

15. 15.

    Exarhos AL, Hopper DA, Grote RR, Alkauskas A, Bassett LC. Optical signatures of quantum emitters in suspended hexagonal boron nitride. ACS Nano. 2017;11:3328-3336.

    Not in our library10.1021/acsnano.7b00665

16. 16.

    Dean CR, et al. Boron nitride substrates for high-quality graphene electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2010;5:722-726.

    Not in our library10.1038/nnano.2010.172

17. 17.

    Kumar A, Low T, Fung KH, Avouris P, Fang NX. Tunable light-matter interaction and the role of hyperbolicity in graphene-hBN system. Nano Lett. 2015;15:3172-3180.

    Not in our library10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01191

18. 18.

    Tran TT, et al. Robust multicolor single photon emission from point defects in hexagonal boron nitride. ACS Nano. 2016;10:7331-7338.

    Not in our library10.1021/acsnano.6b03602

19. 19.

    Roldán R, Castellanos-Gomez A, Cappelluti E, Guinea F. Strain engineering in semiconducting two-dimensional crystals. J. Phys. Condens. Matter. 2015;27:313201.

    Not in our library10.1088/0953-8984/27/31/313201

20. 20.

    Kumar S, Kaczmarczyk A, Gerardot BD. Strain-induced spatial and spectral isolation of quantum emitters in mono- and bilayer WSe2. Nano Lett. 2015;15:7567-7573.

    Not in our library10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b03312

21. 21.
    Large-scale quantum-emitter arrays in atomically thin semiconductors · 2017

    No notice
22. 22.
    Deterministic strain-induced arrays of quantum emitters in a two-dimensional semiconductor · 2017

    No notice
23. 23.

    Seidl S, et al. Effect of uniaxial stress on excitons in a self-assembled quantum dot. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2006;88:203113.

    Not in our library10.1063/1.2204843

24. 24.

    Trotta, R. & Rastelli, A. in Engineering the Atom-Photon Interaction 277–302 (Springer, 2015).

    Not in our library

25. 25.

    Garcia AGF, et al. Effective cleaning of hexagonal boron nitride for graphene devices. Nano Lett. 2012;12:4449-4454.

    Not in our library10.1021/nl3011726

26. 26.

    Katzir A, Suss JT, Zunger A, Halperin A. Point defects in hexagonal boron nitride. I. EPR, thermoluminescence, and thermally-stimulated-current measurements. Phys. Rev. B Condens. Matter Mater. Phys. 1975;11:2370-2377.

    Not in our library10.1103/physrevb.11.2370

27. 27.

    Wong D, et al. Characterization and manipulation of individual defects in insulating hexagonal boron nitride using scanning tunnelling microscopy. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015;10:949-953.

    Not in our library10.1038/nnano.2015.188

28. 28.

    Remes Z, Nesladek M, Haenen K, Watanabe K, Taniguchi T. The optical absorption and photoconductivity spectra of hexagonal boron nitride single crystals. Phys. Status Solidi. 2005;202:2229-2233.

    Not in our library10.1002/pssa.200561902

29. 29.

    Giri PK. Studies on the surface swelling of ion-irradiated silicon: role of defects. Mater. Sci. Eng. B. 2005;121:238-243.

    Not in our library10.1016/j.mseb.2005.04.003

30. 30.

    Prins JF, Derry TE, Sellschop JPF. Volume expansion of diamond during ion implantation. Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter Mater. Phys. 1986;34:8870-8874.

    Not in our library10.1103/physrevb.34.8870

31. 31.

    Reich S, et al. Resonant Raman scattering in cubic and hexagonal boron nitride. Phys. Rev. B Condens. Matter Mater. Phys. 2005;71:205201.

    Not in our library10.1103/physrevb.71.205201

32. 32.

    Ferrari AC, Robertson J. Interpretation of Raman spectra of disordered and amorphous carbon. Phys. Rev. B Condens. Matter Mater. Phys. 2000;61:14095-14107.

    Not in our library10.1103/physrevb.61.14095

33. 33.

    Nanda G, et al. Defect control and n -doping of encapsulated graphene by helium-ion-beam irradiation. Nano Lett. 2015;15:4006-4012.

    Not in our library10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b00939

34. 34.

    Brouri R, Beveratos A, Poizat JP, Grangier P. Photon antibunching in the fluorescence of individual color centers in diamond. Opt. Lett. 2000;25:1294-1296.

    Not in our library10.1364/ol.25.001294

35. 35.

    Chu X-L, Götzinger S, Sandoghdar V. A single molecule as a high-fidelity photon gun for producing intensity-squeezed light. Nat. Photonics. 2016;11:58-62.

    Not in our library10.1038/nphoton.2016.236

36. 36.

    Kumar H, Dong L, Shenoy VB. Limits of coherency and strain transfer in flexible 2D van der waals heterostructures: formation of strain solitons and interlayer debonding. Sci. Rep. 2016;5:21516.

    Not in our library10.1038/srep21516

37. 37.

    Conley HJ, et al. Bandgap engineering of strained monolayer and bilayer MoS2. Nano Lett. 2013;13:3626-3630.

    Not in our library10.1021/nl4014748

38. 38.

    Hui YY, et al. Exceptional tunability of band energy in a compressively strained trilayer MoS2Sheet. ACS Nano. 2013;7:7126-7131.

    Not in our library10.1021/nn4024834

39. 39.

    Ni G-X, et al. Tuning optical conductivity of large-scale CVD graphene by strain engineering. Adv. Mater. 2014;26:1081-1086.

    Not in our library10.1002/adma.201304156

40. 40.

    Manjanath A, Samanta A, Pandey T, Singh AK. Semiconductor to metal transition in bilayer phosphorene under normal compressive strain. Nanotechnology. 2015;26:075701.

    Not in our library10.1088/0957-4484/26/7/075701

41. 41.

    Perdew JP, Kieron B, Matthias E. Generalized gradient approximation made simple. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1997;78:1396-1396.

    Not in our library10.1103/physrevlett.78.1396

42. 42.

    Soler JM, et al. The SIESTA method for ab initio order- N materials simulation. J. Phys. Condens. Matter. 2002;14:2745-2779.

    Not in our library10.1088/0953-8984/14/11/302

43. 43.

    Troullier N, Martins JL. Efficient pseudopotentials for plane-wave calculations. II. Operators for fast iterative diagonalization. Phys. Rev. B Condens. Matter Mater. Phys. 1991;43:8861-8869.

    Not in our library10.1103/physrevb.43.8861

Cited by papers we hold 1

• Blue emission at atomically sharp 1D heterojunctions between graphene and h-BN · 2020
  Not checked

Reads

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.