Electrical Control of Quantum Emitters in a Van der Waals Heterostructure

Abstract

Controlling and manipulating individual quantum systems in solids underpins the growing interest in development of scalable quantum technologies1, 2. Recently, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has garnered significant attention in quantum photonic applications due to its ability to host optically stable quantum emitters3-7. However, the large band gap of hBN and the lack of efficient doping inhibits electrical triggering and limits opportunities to study electrical control of emitters. Here, we show an approach to electrically modulate quantum emitters in an hBN–graphene van der Waals heterostructure. We show that quantum emitters in hBN can be reversibly activated and modulated by applying a bias across the device. Notably, a significant number of quantum emitters are intrinsically dark, and become optically active at non-zero voltages. To explain the results, we provide a heuristic electrostatic model of this unique behaviour. Finally, employing these devices we demonstrate a nearly-coherent source with linewidths of ~ 160 MHz. Our results enhance the potential of hBN for tunable solid state quantum emitters for the growing field of quantum information science.

Lifetime-Limited and Tunable Quantum Light Emission in h-BN via Electric Field Modulation

“…It is worth noting that, in recent studies on the effect of electrostatic field on h-BN emitters, , it has been observed that the emitter charge state can be modulated because of electrostatic doping, such that the emitter can switch between optically dark and bright states. However, we do not observe such an effect here.…”

Manipulating the Stacking in Two-Dimensional Hexagonal Boron Nitride Bilayers: Implications for Defect-Based Single Photon Emitters

“…Recently, White et al designed a heterostructure based on hBN multilayers, hosting SPEs and graphene. 7 By applying a transversal voltage, they successfully toggled specific SPEs on and off, demonstrating precise control over the filling of their electronic levels.…”

“…In these systems, the individual layers mutually influence each other, often bringing new functionality to the entire structure. Recently, White et al designed a heterostructure based on hBN multilayers, hosting SPEs and graphene . By applying a transversal voltage, they successfully toggled specific SPEs on and off, demonstrating precise control over the filling of their electronic levels.…”

Localization-enhanced moiré exciton in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide heterotrilayer superlattices

“…Vertically stacked 2D materials can generate periodic moiré superlattices due to lattice mismatches or twist angles 7 . The moiré potential in the moiré superlattice dominates the kinetic energy within the mini-Brillouin zone, which changes the electronic band structure in the heterojunction [8][9][10] , and induces strongly correlated quantum phenomena: including strongly correlated insulators [11][12][13][14] , superconductivity 15 , moiré excitons [16][17][18] , moiré phonons 19,20 , magnetism 21 . Moiré superlattices in twisted two-dimensional (2D) material heterojunctions offer opportunities for the development of many-body physics 22,23 , which will help to drive the development of novel quantum devices 24 .…”