Stark Tuning of Single-Photon Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates electrical control of single-photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride using the Stark effect, enabling tunable emission energies and intensity stabilization for quantum technology applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to electrically tune single-photon emitters in h-BN via van der Waals heterostructures, revealing out-of-plane dipole moments and reversible emission control.

Findings

Stark shifts up to 5.4 nm per GV/m observed

Out-of-plane dipole moments confirmed by theoretical calculations

Reversible control of emission intensity achieved

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.