# Phonon-assisted emission and absorption of individual color centers in hexagonal boron nitride

## TL;DR

This study combines theory and experiments to analyze phonon interactions in defect centers of hexagonal boron nitride, revealing how phonons influence emission spectra and excitation efficiency of single-photon sources.

## Contribution

It provides a detailed model of phonon coupling in boron nitride defect centers, including both LO and LA phonons, and demonstrates phonon-assisted excitation mechanisms.

## Key findings

- Phonon side bands are well described by coupling to bulk LO phonons.
- The ZPL asymmetry involves coupling to local defect modes and LA phonons.
- LO-phonon assisted absorption is the most efficient excitation pathway.

## Abstract

Defect centers in hexagonal boron nitride represent room-temperature single-photon sources in a layered van der Waals material. These light emitters appear with a wide range of transition energies ranging over the entire visible spectrum, which renders the identification of the underlying atomic structure challenging. In addition to their eminent properties as quantum light emitters, the coupling to phonons is remarkable. Their photoluminescence exhibits significant side band emission well separated from the zero phonon line (ZPL) and an asymmetric broadening of the ZPL itself. In this combined theoretical and experimental study we show that the phonon side bands can be well described in terms of the coupling to bulk longitudinal optical (LO) phonons. To describe the ZPL asymmetry we show that in addition to the coupling to longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonons also the coupling to local mode oscillations of the defect center with respect to the entire host crystal has to be considered. By studying the influence of the emitter's wave function dimensions on the phonon side bands we find reasonable values for size of the wave function and the deformation potentials. We perform photoluminescence excitation measurements to demonstrate that the excitation of the emitters is most efficient by LO-phonon assisted absorption.