Extracting Membrane-like hexagonal Boron Nitride hosting single Defect Centers for Resonator Integration

TL;DR

This paper develops nano-manipulation techniques to extract and integrate hBN membranes hosting single photon emitters into optical resonators, enabling enhanced light-matter interactions for quantum photonics and optomechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for extracting and integrating hBN membranes with defect centers into optical cavities, overcoming previous scattering challenges.

Findings

Achieved up to 100-fold spectral enhancement in a fiber cavity at room temperature.

Demonstrated successful transfer and coupling of hBN membranes with single photon emitters to photonic devices.

Established a pathway for using hBN membranes as optomechanical systems in quantum technologies.

Abstract

The integration of membranes into optical resonators plays a key role in a variety of applications, including optomechanics. If such membranes host atom-like systems, ideally with access to spin states, new roads in quantum photonics and also in optomechanics can be taken. Layered, two-dimensional materials have emerged as candidates for membranes hosting atom-like quantum emitters. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is among the most promising two-dimensional platforms showing good mechanical properties combined with the ability to host various kinds of optical active (spin-) defects. However, the determinisitc creation of optically active defect centers in hBN membranes is an outstanding challenge. Commercially available flakes of hBN host defect centers with promising optical properties, but the integration into optical resonators suffers from scattering losses due to the flakes topography and suitable transfer, handling and manipulation techniques need to be established. Here, we develope a toolset of nano-scaled manipulation techniques to extract membrane-like structures of commercially-available hBN containing spectrally narrow single photon emitters. We demonstrate the transfer and integration into photonic devices, by coupling a single photon emitter in membran-like hBN to the mode of an open Fabry-Perot fiber cavity (FPFC) and observe cavity induced spectral enhancement by a factor of up to 100 at room temperature. Overcoming hBN-induced scattering for extracted hBN membranes, which host single photon emitters, paves the way for future applications such as its use as an optomechanical system.