Carbon defects engineering in hexagonal boron nitride for single photon emission and spin qubits
Tingli Du,
Xiaowei Yang,
Wei Pei,
Pingping Han,
Yonglei Feng,
Jijun Zhao,
Si Zhou
Affiliations
Tingli Du
Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams (Dalian University of Technology), Ministry of Education, Dalian 116024, China
Xiaowei Yang
College of Physics and Electronic Information, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot 010022, Inner Mongolia, China
Wei Pei
College of Physics Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Jiangsu 225009, China
Pingping Han
Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams (Dalian University of Technology), Ministry of Education, Dalian 116024, China
Yonglei Feng
Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Jijun Zhao
Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Si Zhou
Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
The common defects in ultrathin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) provide diverse color centers for quantum information applications. However, deterministic manipulation of h-BN defects spatially and spectrally remains a grand challenge. Understanding the principles for tuning the spin state, zero-phonon line (ZPL) energy, emission intensity, and linewidth is highly sought after. Here, we showcase that substitutional carbon defects, ubiquitous in synthetic h-BN, can be engineered facilely to possess quantum emission and spin-selective luminescence properties on-demand. Within the h-BN host lattice, single carbon dimers and carbon defect complexes exhibit strong ZPL emission with wavelength and vibrational structure tunable by the size of the defect complex. The carbon impurities can also form charge-neutral spin defects with high quantum yield and prolonged spin coherence time with regard to the widely reported boron vacancy defect VB−. The essential roles of exciton nature and electron–phonon coupling in the quantum optical performance are elucidated, providing useful guidance for the design of solid-state single photon emitters and spin qubits.
