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Quantum Emitter Localization in Layer-Engineered Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Stewart, James Callum 
Fan, Ye 
Danial, John SH 
Goetz, Alexander 
Prasad, Adarsh S 

Abstract

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a promising host material for room-temperature, tunable solid-state quantum emitters. A key technological challenge is deterministic and scalable spatial emitter localization, both laterally and vertically, while maintaining the full advantages of the 2D nature of the material. Here, we demonstrate emitter localization in hBN in all three dimensions via a monolayer (ML) engineering approach. We establish pretreatment processes for hBN MLs to either fully suppress or activate emission, thereby enabling such differently treated MLs to be used as select building blocks to achieve vertical (z) emitter localization at the atomic layer level. We show that emitter bleaching of ML hBN can be suppressed by sandwiching between two protecting hBN MLs, and that such thin stacks retain opportunities for external control of emission. We exploit this to achieve lateral (x-y) emitter localization via the addition of a patterned graphene mask that quenches fluorescence. Such complete emitter site localization is highly versatile, compatible with planar, scalable processing, allowing tailored approaches to addressable emitter array designs for advanced characterization, monolithic device integration, and photonic circuits.

Description

Keywords

2D materials, graphene, hBN, point defects, quantum emission, single-photon emission, spectroscopy

Journal Title

ACS Nano

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1936-0851
1936-086X

Volume Title

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P005152/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L016087/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) (785219)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) (881603)
EPSRC (1944296)
European Union’s Horizon 2020, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Royal Society