Nanoassembly of quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride and gold nanospheres

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates precise assembly of gold nanospheres with quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride, achieving significant fluorescence enhancement and lifetime reduction, advancing quantum nanophotonics and nanosensor development.

Contribution

It introduces a controllable nanoassembly method using AFM to enhance quantum emitter emission in hBN with gold nanospheres, a novel approach in quantum nanophotonics.

Findings

Over 300% fluorescence enhancement achieved

Radiative quantum efficiency up to 40%

Saturated count rate exceeds 5 million counts/sec

Abstract

Assembly of quantum nanophotonic systems with plasmonic resonators are important for fundamental studies of single photon sources as well as for on-chip information processing. In this work, we demonstrate controllable nanoassembly of gold nanospheres with ultra-bright quantum emitters in 2D layered hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). We utilize an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip to precisely position gold nanospheres to close proximity of the quantum emitters and observe the resulting emission enhancement and fluorescence lifetime reduction. A fluorescence enhancement of over 300% is achieved experimentally for quantum emitters in hBN, with a radiative quantum efficiency of up to 40% and a saturated count rate in excess of 5 million counts/s. Our results are promising for future employment of quantum emitters in hBN for integrated nanophotonic devices and plasmonic based nanosensors.