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Spectrally Resolved Photodynamics of Individual Emitters in Large-Area Monolayers of Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Fan, Ye 
Mizuta, Ryo 
Stewart, James C 

Abstract

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a 2D, wide band gap semiconductor that has recently been shown to display bright room-temperature emission in the visible region, sparking immense interest in the material for use in quantum applications. In this work, we study highly crystalline, single atomic layers of chemical vapor deposition grown h-BN and find predominantly one type of emissive state. Using a multidimensional super-resolution fluorescence microscopy technique we simultaneously measure spatial position, intensity, and spectral properties of the emitters, as they are exposed to continuous wave illumination over minutes. As well as low emitter heterogeneity, we observe inhomogeneous broadening of emitter line-widths and power law dependency in fluorescence intermittency; this is strikingly similar to previous work on quantum dots. These results show that high control over h-BN growth and treatment can produce a narrow distribution of emitter type and that surface interactions heavily influence the photodynamics. Furthermore, we highlight the utility of spectrally resolved wide-field microscopy in the study of optically active excitations in atomically thin two-dimensional materials.

Description

Keywords

2D materials, hexagonal boron nitride, multidimensional super-resolution, semiconductor defects, single-molecule microscopy, spectroscopy, super-resolution

Journal Title

ACS Nano

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1936-0851
1936-086X

Volume Title

13

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)
Sponsorship
Royal Society (URF\R\180029)
Royal Society (RGF\EA\181021)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L016087/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015978/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M506485/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) (785219)
Junior Research Fellowship, Trinity College. EPSRC Doctoral Training Award (EP/M506485) EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre in Graphene Technology (EP/L016087/1) EPSRC Cambridge NanoDTC (EP/L015978/1) Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF120277) European Union Horizon 2020