Abstract
Solid-state single-photon emitters (SPEs) such as the bright, stable, room-temperature defects within hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are of increasing interest for quantum information science. To date, the atomic and electronic origins of SPEs within hBN have not been well understood, and no studies have reported photochromism or explored cross correlations between hBN SPEs. Here, we combine irradiation time-dependent microphotoluminescence spectroscopy with two-color Hanbury Brown–Twiss interferometry in an investigation of the electronic structure of hBN defects. We identify evidence of photochromism in an hBN SPE that exhibits single-photon cross correlations and correlated changes in the intensity of its two zero-phonon lines.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Optica |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2021 |
Funding
Funding. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (DE-AC05-00OR22725); National Science Foundation (DMR-1747426). Acknowledgment. This research was sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. Initial experimental planning and design was supported by the Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy. M.A.F. gratefully acknowledges student support by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) and NSF award DMR-1747426. C.E.M gratefully acknowledges postdoctoral research support from the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, administered by Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Rapid thermal processing and spectroscopy experiments were carried out at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is sponsored at ORNL by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. The authors thank Harrison Prosper for discussions regarding uncertainty estimation for the auto-and cross-correlation fits.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Office of Basic Energy Sciences | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
| U. S. Department of Energy | |
| National Science Foundation | DMR-1747426 |
| U.S. Department of Defense | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences | 1747426 |
| Office of Science | |
| Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education | |
| Office of the Director of National Intelligence | |
| Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program | |
| Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering | |
| National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate | |
| UT-Battelle |