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arXiv · 2110.00895

Investigation of photon emitters in Ce-implanted hexagonal boron nitride

Gabriel I. López-Morales·Mingxing Li·Alexander Hampel·Sitakanta Satapathy·Nicholas V. Proscia·Harishankar Jayakumar·Artur Lozovoi·Daniela Pagliero·Gustavo E. Lopez·Vinod M. Menon·Johannes Flick·Carlos A. Meriles
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Abstract

Color centers in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are presently attracting broad interest as a novel platform for nanoscale sensing and quantum information processing. Unfortunately, their atomic structures remain largely elusive and only a small percentage of the emitters studied thus far has the properties required to serve as optically addressable spin qubits. Here, we use confocal fluorescence microscopy at variable temperature to study a new class of point defects produced via cerium ion implantation in thin hBN flakes. We find that, to a significant fraction, emitters show bright room-temperature emission, and good optical stability suggesting the formation of Ce-based point defects. Using density functional theory (DFT) we calculate the emission properties of candidate emitters, and single out the CeVB center - formed by an interlayer Ce atom adjacent to a boron vacancy - as one possible microscopic model. Our results suggest an intriguing route to defect engineering that simultaneously exploits the singular properties of rare-earth ions and the versatility of two-dimensional material hosts.

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Gabriel I. López-Morales, Mingxing Li, Alexander Hampel, Sitakanta Satapathy, Nicholas V. Proscia, Harishankar Jayakumar, Artur Lozovoi, Daniela Pagliero, Gustavo E. Lopez, Vinod M. Menon, Johannes Flick, Carlos A. Meriles. 2021-10-03. Investigation of photon emitters in Ce-implanted hexagonal boron nitride. https://doi.org/10.1364/ome.434083

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