Stark Tuning of Single-Photon Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Abstract

Single-photon emitters play an essential role in quantum technologies, including quantum computing and quantum communications. Atomic defects in hexagonal boron nitride ( h-BN) have recently emerged as new room-temperature single-photon emitters in solid-state systems, but the development of scalable and tunable h-BN single-photon emitters requires external methods that can control the emission energy of individual defects. Here, by fabricating van der Waals heterostructures of h-BN and graphene, we demonstrate the electrical control of single-photon emission from atomic defects in h-BN via the Stark effect. By applying an out-of-plane electric field through graphene gates, we observed Stark shifts as large as 5.4 nm per GV/m. The Stark shift generated upon a vertical electric field suggests the existence of out-of-plane dipole moments associated with atomic defect emitters, which is supported by first-principles theoretical calculations. Furthermore, we found field-induced discrete modification and stabilization of emission intensity, which were reversibly controllable with an external electric field.

Single-photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride: a review of progress

“…4(c)). Also, subsequent calculations 116 predicted that the singlet ground state of VNCB distorts to a non-planar asymmetric structure with a reorganization energy of 440 meV, predicting large energy dissipation on the ground-state recovery reaction ( Fig. 4(c)), inconsistent with observed energetics.…”

“…The electrical control of single-photon emission from atomic defects in h-BN has been recently demonstrated via the Stark effect 116 . Stark shifts were measured to be of the order…”

Solid-state single photon source with Fourier transform limited lines at room temperature

“…There are also arXiv:1903.02931v2 [cond-mat.mes-hall] 26 Sep 2019 a variety of benefits of the 2D nature of the material, including efficient optical collection and flexible device design, including the diverse opportunities offered by heterostructures of van der Waals materials. Indeed, the layered nature of the material has already been exploited to realize spectral tuning of the ZPLs of the SPEs, using mechanical induced strain [20] or Stark tuning [15], over a range of 1.4 THz. However, owing to their variety and, until recently, issues with their reproduction, the chemical structure of the SPEs in hBN is unknown.…”

“…via nearby defects, boundaries and interfaces) to bias a particular out-of-plane direction (e.g. [15]). Consequently, it is possible that decoupling of color centers from phonons is a fundamental feature of 2D materials and thus our observations motivate a new research direction across color centers in 2D materials.…”

Ab initio theory of the negatively charged boron vacancy qubit in hexagonal boron nitride

“…Indeed, our DFT simulations reveal considerable JT distortions that release 0.193 eV, 0.297 eV, and 0.132 eV energy in the 3 E , 1 E , and 1 E states, seeTable I.We note that the 1 E singlet state, dominated by the e 2 determinant, is JT unstable only due to the inter mixture of JT unstable e a 1 Slater determinant. Besides e phonons, membrane vibrational modes[30] also couple to the electronic structure of VB in the 3 E and 1 E states that further reduce the symmetry and the energy, seeTable I. While the JT and membrane distortions of the first neighbor shell of VB are in the same order, ≈ 0.1Å, the energy gain due to out of plane distortions is an order of magnitude smaller than the JT energy.…”