Deterministic strain-induced arrays of quantum emitters in a two-dimensional semiconductor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to create deterministic, high-quality quantum emitter arrays in a two-dimensional semiconductor using nanoscale strain engineering, advancing scalable quantum photonic architectures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel strain engineering technique to produce ordered arrays of quantum emitters in monolayer and bilayer WSe2 with high purity and coherence.

Findings

Deterministic quantum emitter arrays achieved via nanoscale strain in WSe2.

Emitters exhibit high-purity single-photon emission.

Potential applications in cavity QED and integrated quantum photonics.

Abstract

An outstanding challenge in quantum photonics is scalability, which requires positioning of single quantum emitters in a deterministic fashion. Site positioning progress has been made in established platforms including defects in diamond and self-assembled quantum dots, albeit often with compromised coherence and optical quality. The emergence of single quantum emitters in layered transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors offers new opportunities to construct a scalable quantum architecture. Here, using nanoscale strain engineering, we deterministically achieve a two-dimensional lattice of quantum emitters in an atomically thin semiconductor. We create point-like strain perturbations in mono- and bi-layer WSe2 which locally modify the band-gap, leading to efficient funneling of excitons towards isolated strain-tuned quantum emitters that exhibit high-purity single photon emission. These arrays of non-classical light emitters open new vistas for two-dimensional semiconductors in cavity quantum electrodynamics and integrated on-chip quantum photonics.