Carbon-Related Quantum Emitter in Hexagonal Boron Nitride with Homogeneous Energy and 3-Fold Polarization.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38240528.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c03628 and PMC identifier 10835729.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Most hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) single-photon emitters (SPEs) studied to date suffer from variable emission energy and unpredictable polarization, two crucial obstacles to their application in quantum technologies. Here, we report an SPE in hBN with an energy of 2.2444 ± 0.0013 eV created via carbon implantation that exhibits a small inhomogeneity of the emission energy. Polarization-resolved measurements reveal aligned absorption and emission dipole orientations with a 3-fold distribution, which follows the crystal symmetry. Photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopy results show the predictability of polarization is associated with a reproducible PLE band, in contrast with the non-reproducible bands found in previous hBN SPE species. Photon correlation measurements are consistent with a three-level model with weak coupling to a shelving state. Our ab initio excited-state calculations shed light on the atomic origin of this SPE defect, which consists of a pair of substitutional carbon atoms located at boron and nitrogen sites separated by a hexagonal unit cell.