Tracking the creation of single photon emitters in AlN by implantation and annealing

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ion implantation and annealing create single photon emitters in AlN, demonstrating that annealing of implanted regions produces quantum emitters with anti-bunching properties similar to natural ones.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the creation process of single photon emitters in AlN via implantation and annealing, highlighting the role of implantation in emitter formation.

Findings

Point-like emitters are created after annealing in implanted regions.

Annealing alone does not produce new emitters in unimplanted regions.

New emitters exhibit anti-bunching and spectral similarity to natural AlN emitters.

Abstract

In this study, we inspect and analyze the effect of Al implantation into AlN by conducting confocal microscopy on the ion implanted regions, before and after implantation, followed by an annealing step. The independent effect of annealing is studied in an unimplanted control region, which showed that annealing alone does not produce new emitters. We observed that point-like emitters are created in the implanted regions after annealing by tracking individual locations in a lithographically patterned sample. The newly created quantum emitters show anti-bunching under ambient conditions and are spectrally similar to the previously discovered emitters in as-grown AlN.