Engineering and Microscopic Mechanism of Quantum Emitters Induced by Heavy Ions in hBN

Abstract

Solid-state quantum emitters play a critical role in the application of quantum information technology. Quantum emitters with high brightness at room temperature can be realized in hBN, and it has become a current research hotspot. However, much of the research up to now only produced quantum emitters at the edges and wrinkles of hBN, which tremendously limited the usage of the quantum emitters. In this work, heavy ions irradiation methods were employed to produce highquality quantum emitters in the middle region of the hBN sample. The quantum emitter production engineering via heavy ions irradiation was systematically investigated. The dependence of irradiated ion type, energy, and fluence, as well as the thickness of the hBN flakes, on the production efficiency of the hBN quantum emitters were analyzed in detail. The characteristics of luminescence of quantum emitters, such as second-order correlation function g (2) (τ), stability, polarization, and saturation, were all compared with different irradiation conditions. In addition, based on the wavelength statistical results of quantum emitters in hBN, the transition energies of various intrinsic point defects in hBN were studied through first-principles calculations to reveal the originations of luminescence. The calculation results indicated that the V N , V B , and B i point defects were possible candidates of the quantum emitter centers. Overall, in this study, according to experimental characterizations, heavy ion irradiation should be an efficient method to produce stable, ultrabright, highly linearly polarized quantum emitters in hBN flakes.

Vibrational Properties in Highly Strained Hexagonal Boron Nitride Bubbles

“…This demonstrates the remarkable flexibility of our method, which, unlike H-plasma-based methods, enables us to obtain bubbles thinner than 10 monolayers. The long durability of the bubbles and Raman studies of the irradiated flakes (see Supporting Figure S5) suggest that the low-energy beams employed here do not induce a sizable amount of defects in the crystal, unlike higher energy heavier atom beams. − …”

Site-Specific Fabrication of Blue Quantum Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

“…It has been used widely as a thin dielectric layer in electronic devices and a protective cap for sensitive materials such as transition-metal dichalcogenides. Recently, its quantum photonic properties have gained considerable attention, as hBN has been found to host a variety of single-photon emitters (SPEs) that span the ultraviolet (UV) to the near-infrared (IR) spectral range. − …”

Large-Scale, High-Yield Laser Fabrication of Bright and Pure Single-Photon Emitters at Room Temperature in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

“…To generate and optimize SPEs in hBN, various methods have been applied, − such as thermal annealing, chemical or plasma etching, − substrate strain-induced fabrication, ion/electron beam irradiation, − atomic force microscopy (AFM) indentation, direct laser writing, and bottom-up growth . High-temperature annealing only activates initial defects, and SPEs are found to be localized mainly at the edges of the exfoliated flakes due to the lower defect formation energy.…”