Orbitally resolved single-photon emission from an individual atomic vacancy center in a semiconductor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates atomic-scale, orbitally resolved single-photon emission from individual vacancy centers in a semiconductor using a scanning tunneling microscope, advancing quantum light source development.

Contribution

It introduces a method to achieve atomic-resolution single-photon emission from vacancy centers, revealing their orbital symmetry and enabling potential quantum device applications.

Findings

Achieved <1 nm spatial resolution in photon emission.

Confirmed single-photon emission via photon antibunching.

Linked emitted light to the orbital symmetry of vacancy states.

Abstract

Atomically confined spins are emerging as active components in quantum optoelectronic devices such as quantum bits and sensors. However, interrogating single spins at atomic length-scales remains a sizeable challenge, limited by diffraction in conventional optics. Here we show that the highly-local excitation provided by injecting energetic charge carriers from the atomically sharp probe of a scanning tunneling microscope can trigger single-photon emission from individual atomic vacancy centers in a layered semiconductor. With an effective spatial resolution of <1 nm, we show that the captured light closely mirrors the orbital symmetry of the bound-state wavefunction of the vacancy center while photon correlation measurements confirm single-photon emission, as reflected in clear photon anti-bunching signatures. Our results constitute an important step toward the realization of an electrically addressable single-atom quantum light source and solid-state spinphoton interface, addressed at the atomic-scale.