Reproducible generation of green-emitting color centers in hBN using oxygen annealing

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a simple oxygen annealing method to produce a high density of uniform, stable, and bright green-emitting quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride, suitable for quantum information applications.

Contribution

The study introduces a reproducible oxygen annealing process to generate uniform, bright, and stable quantum emitters in hBN with narrow emission lines.

Findings

Emitters emit around 539.4 nm with <1 nm wavelength variation.

Emitters are bright, stable, and exhibit narrow lines at low temperatures.

The process yields a high density of nearly identical single-photon emitters.

Abstract

The ability to generate quantum emitters with reproducible properties in solid-state matrices is crucial for quantum technologies. Here, we show that a high density of close-to-identical single-photon emitters can be created in commercial hexagonal boron nitride using annealing under oxygen atmosphere. This simple procedure yields a uniform in-plane distribution of color centers consistently emitting around 539.4 nm, with a wavelength spread smaller than 1 nm. We present an extensive characterization of their photophysical properties, showing that the emitters are bright and stable, and exhibit narrow lines at low temperatures with minimal spectral diffusion. These characteristics make this family of quantum emitters highly appealing for applications to quantum information science.